The Great Migration
The rocky road to J2EE and .NET
by Neil McAllister
New Architect
March
2003
J2EE or .Net? It's a question that seems to scream from the cover of every
trade magazine and conference brochure. Sun's Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)
and Microsoft's next-generation .Net framework are widely regarded as the future
of enterprise application development.
Together, these two platforms represent a shift away from the traditional,
centralized application development model to one that emphasizes distributed,
network-centric applications based on XML. This evolution is particularly significant
for larger enterprises, which are often faced with the challenge of integrating
a variety of disparate applications and legacy systems.
While industry debate about the relative merits of J2EE versus .Net has at
times taken on the tenor of a holy war, the argument over which technology will
triumph is largely moot. The .Net developer strategy is remarkably similar to
Sun's Java strategy in many ways. Each has merits, and their common goal is
a laudable one. There's no real reason why either platform should emerge as
the sole victor; in fact, many organizations will ultimately use both. A survey
of six hundred developers conducted in October by Santa Cruz-based Evans Data
reported that 61 percent of developers would target .Net in 2003, while 63 percent
would code for J2EE.
Though a migration to one or both of these platforms may seem inevitable, it
should still raise some concerns. A technology shift of the magnitude of a move
to either J2EE or .Net calls for careful consideration and planning, and the
tendency of Java or Windows platform loyalists to "leap before they look" should
raise a red flag for any conscientious IT manager.
Name Your Terms
The underlying ideas behind both J2EE and .N
