Microsoft .NET is the key enabling technology for Microsoft's vision of software as a service. The .NET Framework is the overall infrastructure that provides developers with a platform to create programs that transcend device boundaries and fully harness the connectivity of the Interne...

Enterprises frequently have to deal with part of their infrastructure that doesn't have the privilege of uninterrupted connectivity. Such system environments designed using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) need a way to manage uncertain connectivity. SOA as an architectural paradigm...

BEA Systems has unveiled its plans for the BEA SOA 360º platform. The BEA SOA 360º platform is intended to deliver the industry's most unified Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform for business transformation and optimization, in order to help to improve cost structures and to...

Like it or not, .NET is proving a powerful force in the software industry. As a ColdFusion developer, you'll probably need to interact with it at some point in time. One of the promises of .NET is that it can provide this interoperability through Web services.

Yesterday at CES 2005 in Las Vegas Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect at Microsoft, and Judy McGrath, CEO and chairman of MTV Networks, addressed conference attendees. Gates was talking at CES for the seventh successive year.

After publicly retracting the results of J2EE versus .NET benchmark tests it conducted back in 2002, The Middleware Company (TMC) bravely ventured recently to revisit this minefield. From IBM's point of view, according to an internal document obtained today by WebSphere Journal, TMC ha...

Microsoft is advancing an XML-based Web service that was boosted via an online demonstration by Cornell University's Computation Group Finance Group. This technology is part of Microsoft's power computing initiative. The company hopes this particular technology, and the use that Cornel...

This article describes recent work in a leading investment bank using Microsoft's BizTalk Server 2004 (BizTalk) as an integral component of a service-oriented architecture. I'll describe how BizTalk is used to implement lightweight workflow that builds new services from existing servic...

Marketing executives across the country love to know how well their business is doing, especially how much money it's making. This need has produced a number of solutions across the market in all ranges of complexity.

The growth of applications using the .NET platform has generated an increased emphasis on performance measurement and analysis. Distributed applications, while much more flexible and potentially more scalable than monolithic ones, have characteristics that make it more difficult to ach...

You've heard the hype about .NET. You've read a couple of vague articles about dynamic discovery and invocation, service-oriented architecture, and how SOAP and a handful of other XML standards are forever changing the software industry. You want to explore the world of .NET, but are u...

Another platform battle is brewing in the industry, or at least that's what the journals would have you believe. Will it be Microsoft's .NET platform, or J2EE supported by Sun, IBM, HP, and others? We don't know, but the more important question is: 'Who cares?' Presumably, Microsof...

Legions of distinguished commentators have already written a zillion words to explain that .NET is either 'awesomely easy to use' or 'monopolistic'; conversely, what seems like thousands of articles suggest that J2EE is 'the only proven scalable platform' or is 'dangerously fragmen...

.NET Passport is a Microsoft-operated service that provides Internet authentication for Web sites, no matter what kind of devices they use for access. It provides reliable Internet authentication and allows users to sign in once to access a variety of .NET Passport-enabled Web site...

Martin Fowler, of Extreme Programming fame, states: 'Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.

As the CTO of a technology integrator, I help customers derive tangible business value from technology solutions. Web services holds a lot of promise in this regard. After shedding some light on what's new about Web services, this article will present our view on the .NET versus J2E...

Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) has achieved critical mass as a platform for developing Web applications. Microsoft's .NET is also a strong contender in the Web world. Today both J2EE and .NET are evolving (via XML, Web services, etc.) from development-only platforms into developm...

As XML Web services invade the technology forefront, I almost feel as if an understanding of the SOAP protocol is becoming an everyday essential for me as a .NET developer.

Carl Sagan once said, 'In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.' Although Carl wasn't especially known for witty quips, that one should strike a chord with developers creating applications for the Internet. Because that's the approach many develop...

My first thought, when I heard about .NET, was 'Here we go again!' It sounded like yet another attempt on the part of Microsoft to revitalize what appeared to be a fading technology and vision. Increasingly, as a programmer and architect, I was getting the impression that the excit...

Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) has not yet achieved critical mass as a Web application platform. Today, for example, over 10,000 customers are using BEA WebLogic, the J2EE application server market leader. However, it's a safe bet that J2EE will eventually reach critical mass.

One key area in which Microsoft must prove itself is in the security of the data stored by the .NET Services. Because Microsoft is a favorite target of hackers, and the personal, transactional, and payment data will be so valuable, this data store is sure to be plagued by people tr...

If you weren't there, a couple of years from now you'll misremember and say you were. That's how big - how momentous - Web Services Edge 2001 West and XMLEdge were. Call that late October conference in Santa Clara the Woodstock of Web services because this is the one everyone wishes th...

Referred to by some as the fourth wave of computing, Web services intend to standardize the way business applications communicate with each other, whether they are within an enterprise or communicating with external partners, customers, and suppliers. In this article we explore the key...

Get ready, because soon the big knock will be at your door and your boss will be standing there with a single question for you: Should we go with .NET or J2EE for our Web services? Know a couple of things right off the bat. Big bucks will ride on your answer because, whichever directio...