.Net: Look Before You Leap

Computerworld - Microsoft has a lot riding on Windows Server 2003, the latest upgrade to its flagship software for managing computer networks. Will it work for large enterprises, where Microsoft hopes to finally compete with IBM? Redmond certainly thinks so.
Should developers with years invested in writing Windows-based code blindly commit to .Net? Definitely not, because .Net is inferior to Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) for Web application development.
There's no doubt that Microsoft has built a good relationship with the technical community. However, the company's greatest challenge to date is the dramatic shift from client/server computing to the Web. Microsoft is rolling out .Net in response to the explosion in Web development and J2EE, but unfortunately, it's two years late. But by sheer market force and its enormous installed base, Microsoft is trying to jump in and grab a greater chunk of customers' IT budgets.

	Matt Puccini is a 19-year technology industry veteran and currently the president of Espressiv Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.

As companies use the Web to integrate internal systems with the outside world, chief technology officers are deciding whether to depend on Windows as the development platform or to evaluate open systems. Some IT decisions make perfect sense -- moving from DOS to Windows, for example. But for those who think that .Net is a better, easier platform than client/server, think again.

It's common knowledge among developers I know that .Net is a complex migration from client/server, that it's not as scalable, and that Java is a much more open development environment. But another big issue is .Net's weak middle tier -- the crucial piece to the Web development platform puzzle. The middle tier has the single greatest impact on simplicity, productivity and application flexibility.

The Web was originally designed to link documents via HTTP. For more complex integration, it's necessary for back-end systems, such as applications and databases, to be connected to the browser via the middle tier of software. A smart middle tier makes it possible to build workflows that remember where you are within the business process -- such as a special approval within a loan application flow -- and make that happen automatically and effortlessly.

What separates J2EE from .Net is the maturity of that middle tier. Microsoft's .Net doesn't do much beyond connecting information -- basically where J2EE was years ago. For small-scale systems, it doesn't matter. But as applications grow in size and complexity, .Net's lack of a solid middle tier puts the burden on programmers, because it's cumbersome and time-consuming to