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	TABLE OF CONTENTS Home But Wait One Second Catch The Enterprise Service Bus Dial XML For Security Monday Morning Quarterback

But Wait One Second

Lest we sound uncharacteristically optimistic, we'll admit that EAI 2.0 has its shortcomings. The technology currently lacks integration options for custom applications, except through Web services and more conventional file- and database-related mechanisms. Only a handful will SOA-enable mainframe applications, for example. Products from SOA Software, Software AG and TIBCO are popular mechanisms for bringing these legacy applications into a modern computing environment, but they're neither affordable nor easy to implement.

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Integrating custom client-server applications, too, is difficult. Developers must write extra code to provide interfaces at either the integration hub or the application. Applications that take advantage of database storage will be easier to handle, as always, but this integration is at the data--not the function--level. Developers still must recode substantial application logic while they try to integrate custom applications with the rest of the ecosystem.

If you're moving to a SOA anyway, this won't be much of an issue in the long term. Most applications in the client-server realm can easily be moved to a services-based infrastructure, and in the long run, that will be most advantageous to developers and the business alike.

Open-Source Stacks

The term LAMP stack originally described a complete application infrastructure based on Linux, Apache Web server, MySQL open-source database and PHP scripting language--LAMP. In the past year, the number of open-source stacks, and vendors supporting them, has grown considerably. Python and Perl joined PHP as the "P" in LAMP. Then, Ruby on Rails (RoR) became all the rage, and this year MuleSource offered up its SMuT stack (Spring Framework, Mule and Apache Tomcat--we couldn't make this stuff up) as an alternative to ESB. Web sites and media moguls tracking open-source stacks are even buzzing about a possible Sun Microsystems stack that includes Solaris, PostGRES, Apache and Rails--perhaps they'll call it SPAR.

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These preconfigured, integrated application-infrastructure stacks have proved extremely valuable for the enterprise. The time required to deploy a working LAMP stack is minuscule compared with what it takes for enterprise platform competitors BEA Systems, IBM and Oracle. Products from those players generally require hours of additional configuration to integrate the Web server and databases needed for a fully functional application infrastructure. With the stack, integration is painless because the work is already done.

But stacks improve more than just integration between infrastructure components. These JavaEE-based environments often use scripting languages (Perl, PHP, Python, Rails) to front-end applications, rather than JSP or Java. So though it's still a J2EE stack, it's not all Java. These options are great for the enterprise because they make it easier to deliver applications that separate the interface and the business logic--something Java doesn't do very well. This separation is necessary for enterprises to move into the SOA world and begin delivering truly agile applications that can be modified without requiring lengthy development cycles.

Preintegrated stacks provide value for the enterprise by reducing initial and ongoing costs for integration and maintenance. At the same time, they let independent software vendors build lower-cost, easily deployable packaged applications. Rather than requiring BEA's WebLogic or IBM's WebSphere, applications based on open-source stacks can be installed and deployed in hours.

Further, these stacks are competing more with Microsoft than against one another, as Microsoft's infrastructure has always offered ease of integration among products in the stack and simplified deployment of applications.

Not convinced? Even BEA is moving toward a stack mentality, in its own way. This year, VMware partnered with BEA and Red Hat and came up with a "virtualized" appliance for deploying a complete BEA stack on Red Hat Linux, quickly. It's a prebuilt, integrated stack in a virtualized environment. You don't get much trendier than that.

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