'NET vs J2EE A Comparative Analysis

1
.NET vs J2EE A Comparative Analysis

• Michele Arpaia
• IT Professional

2
/Agenda

• TOPICS

What software architecture is
A typical eBusiness scenario
.NET Architectures
J2EE Architectures
Similarities Differences between J2EE .NET
Conclusive considerations
3
0/Key Take-aways
After completing this presentation, you should be
able to

• Understand what architectures are
• Identify all key concepts related to
  architectures
• Discuss architecture design goals and principles
• Describe .NET platform
• Describe J2EE platform
• Describe all similarities and differences between
  .NET and J2EE
• Choose which is the most convenient platform
  depending upon your needs
• Be more objective without fighting a religious
  war!

4
What architectures are

• Michele Arpaia
• IT Professional

5
1/Architecture definition

• Software architecture is one of those terms that
  everyone claims to understand but no one can
  define precisely!
• Before giving a formal definition, we can say
  that most definitions involve references to one
  or more of the following
• Static structure of the software relationship
  among elements
• Dynamic structure of the software relationships
  that change over the lifetime and determine what
  the software looks like when its running
• Composition, that refers to the type of
  significant but smaller pieces that can be part
  of the software
• Layers Tiers and iteraction among them
• Rationale for the software
• Functionality of the software
• Reuse, performance, scalability and so on

6
1/Architecture definition

• More formally we can define a software
  architecture as
• an abstract representation of a systems
  components and behaviors. Ideally, architecture
  does not contain details about implementation
  (thats left for the developers, or engineers).
  The architect gathers information about the
  problem and designs a solution, which satisfies
  the functional and nonfunctional requirements of
  the client and is flexible enough to evolve when
  the requirements change
• and is additionally concerned with
• ...usage, functionality, performance,
  resilience, reuse, comprehensibility, economic
  and technological constraints and trade-offs, and
  aesthetics Krutchen, 1999

7
1/Why Architecture?

• The following list contains a few reason why it
  is important to focus on software architecture
• An ad hoc approach to software will eventually
  lead to a system that is brittle and hard to
  change
• Decomposition into smaller piecies makes software
  easier to understand, manage, develop and
  maintain
• Improve scalabilty, resilience, estensibility,...
• Better reuse thanks to layering approach
• Component oriented
• Having a well documented architecture makes it
  easier to communicate the intent and the
  substance of the system
• Security, performance,...becomes predictable
  factors that can be well managed from the start

8
1/Layering

• Layering creates a separation of concerns by
  abstracting specific type of funcionality into
  functional layers and providing conceptual
  boundaries between set of services
• Layering is a pattern for decomposition
• decomposition leads to a logical partitioning of
  the system into subsystems and modules
• decomposition helps define and clarify interfaces
  between different pieces of a system
• decomposition provides a natural partioning of
  the development tasks
• in UML decomposition is modeled via packages,
  modules and subsystems

9
1/Tier

• Tiers are layers with specific well-defined
  responsabilities, meaning they fulfill a specific
  role in the overall scheme of things. They are
  concerned with distribution of a software system
  over multiple, separate processes.
• Type of application
• One-tiered application Mainframe and dumb
  terminals
• Two-tiered application LAN-based client-server
  systems
• Three-tiered application web-based with
  separation of presentation logic, business logic
  and data logic
• N-tiers apps introduce
• Communication efficency between tiers
• Extensibility changes to the user interface or
  to the application logic are largely independent
  from one another, allowing the application to
  evolve easily to meet new requirements.
• Easy maintenance
• Separation of responsabilities

10
1/Framework

• A framework is a set of cooperating modules that
  make up a reusable design for a specific domain.
• A framework provides a superset of the features
  which are needed for a system.
• A framework dictates the system architecture.
• Technically speaking,
• framework has to do with vertical architecture
  for specific domains. For example financial,
  healthcare, mechanical CAD and so on...
• There are a lot of frameworks in the marketplace
  and Accentures got ACA.NET GRNDS!

11
1/Architecture capabilities
12
A typical scenario

• Michele Arpaia
• IT Professional

13
2/A typical eBusiness scenario

• MoneyBroker is a made-up business used only for
  illustrative purposes. Let's say the purpose of
  MoneyBroker is to allow on-line payment of bills.
  Customers can deposit money in a MoneyBroker
  account and then use that money to pay bills
  on-line.
• Customer can pay bills either directly or
  indirectly.
• Direct payment occurs at the MoneyBroker web site
  where customers log on and arrange for bill
  payment.
• Indirect payment occurs through MoneyBroker
  partners.
• MoneyBroker makes its profit by investing
  outstanding customer balances. Its profit is the
  difference between the interest rate it pays its
  account holders and the interest rate it makes on
  its investment.

14
2/A typical eBusiness scenario
A typical multitiered architecture where software
is placed on different processes
15
2/A typical eBusiness scenario

• Presentation tier
• Is responsible for working with clients.
• With the MoneyBroker application, this tier works
  with thin browser-based bill paying clients.
• The presentation tier accepts an HTTP requests
  from a web browser and returns an HTML page that
  browser can then display.
• Different browsers have different display
  capabilities, so the presentation tier must often
  tailor the HTML to the specific browser (or other
  thin client device) capabilities.
• Considering MVC Pattern, this tier plays the View
  role

16
2/A typical eBusiness scenario

• Business Tier
• For MoneyBroker, this includes the logic that
  maintains the customer accounts and the logic
  that transfers money as bills are paid.
• The presentation tier communicates with the
  business tier through a method transport
  protocol. For the .NET platform, this protocol is
  usually either DCOM or SOAP. For J2EE, it is
  RMI/IIOP.
• Business logic often requires expensive
  resources, such as database connections, threads,
  TCP/IP connections, and message queue
  connections. These resource requirements would
  normally make it difficult to support a large
  number of clients at any one time, a requirement
  of most eCommerce applications.
• To address this problem, both the J2EE and the
  .NET framework business tier include a
  sophisticated middle tier infrastructure that
  supports resource sharing among clients. This
  infrastructure is critical to supporting large
  numbers of clients, and thereby achieving high
  system throughput. In J2EE, this middle tier
  infrastructure is called Enterprise JavaBeans
  (EJB). In the .NET framework, it is called COM.

17
2/A typical eBusiness scenario

• Database Tier
• Is where actual data is stored. For our
  MoneyBroker system, this is where we store
  customer account information and histories of
  bill payments.
• The business tier is the primary client of the
  data tier, although most large corporations also
  have internal applications (not going through the
  eCommerce architecture) that also make use of
  databases residing on the data tier.
• Communication between the business tier and the
  data tier use a specific API, ADO.NET for the
  .NET framework and JDBC for J2EE.

18
.NET architectures

• Michele Arpaia
• IT Professional

19
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
.NET is Microsofts next generation model for
developing enterprise applications that can be
connected anytime, anywhere using XML web
services. .NET provides developers all the
components including smart clients, Web Services,
servers, and developer tools to build enterprise
applications.
...technically speaking, is a development and
execution environment that allows different
programming languages libraries to work
together seamlessly to create Windows-based
applications that are easier to build, manage,
deploy, and integrate with other networked
systems.
20
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
Microsoft .NET provides architects and developers
all the technology and tools to build multi-tier
enterprise applications. With built-in support
for industry standards including Web Services,
.NET applications can also integrate with
non-Microsoft systems.
Smart clients are devices powered by Microsoft
software including the standard PC, Pocket PC,
SmartPhone, XBox, and Tablet PC. Web Services let
applications share data, and invoke functions
from other applications without regard to how
those applications were built, what operating
system or platform they run on, and what devices
are used to access them. Windows Server System
products have built-in security technologies,
support for XML, and the ability to scale out to
meet increased demands. Developer tools like
Visual Studio .NET allow developers to build,
debug, and deploy applications and Web Services.
21
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
The .NET-based application architecture provides
four main layers and focuses on distributed,
service-oriented architectures.
Users may be on a thick client, a web
application, or a mobile device such as a Pocket
PC. Calling services from other applications or
even other enterprises can leverage the business
functions provided by the application. Presentatio
n may be HTML, XML, WAP, or some other
application specific format. Business logic is
encapsulated as .NET components and can easily be
shared with other applications using XML web
services. Data from many sources and platforms
can be accessed using industry standards such as
ODBC built into .NET. Services provided by other
sources can be incorporated into the application.
22
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
ASP.NET is Microsofts technology for building
Web applications and services. Developers create
applications using server-based Web Forms and
Controls.

• Web Forms are the User Interface (UI) elements
  that give Web applications their look and feel.
  Web Forms provide properties, methods, and events
  for the controls that are placed onto them.
  However, these UI elements render themselves in
  the appropriate markup language required by the
  request, for example, HTML. Visual Studio .NET
  provides a drag-and-drop interface to create the
  UI for a Web application.
• ASP.NET and Web Forms have the following
  benefits
• Separation of HTML interface from application
  logic-no more spaghetti code
• A rich set of server-side controls that can
  detect the browser and send out appropriate
  markup language such as HTML
• Less code to write due to the data binding
  capabilities
• Event-based programming model
• Compiled code and support for multiple languages
• Allows third parties to create controls that
  provide additional functionality

23
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
Windows Forms is a .NET technology that enables
developers to build Windows-based applications.
Similar to Web Forms, Windows applications are
created using forms and controls.

• Windows forms drastically decrease the complexity
  of creating user interfaces for Windows clients.
  This type interface delivers a rich, flexible,
  performant, and easy-to-use desktop application.
• .NET rich client applications can be deployed
  using a web server and automatically update
  themselves when new versions are available.
  Traditional deployment on a CD, DVD, floppy, etc.
  is also supported.
• The Code Access Security model in .NET ensures
  that code downloaded from the Internet is not
  allowed to cause harm to the client. There is a
  fine-grained security system that will trust code
  depending on its origin and credentials, such as
  a digital signature.
• Consider a rich client if your application runs
  in a controlled environment, must work offline,
  uses local APIs, or uses peer-to-peer technology.

24
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
Microsoft .NET is built from the ground up to
support the development and operation of XML Web
Services. XML Web Services are the fundamental
building blocks in the move to distributed
computing on the Internet. Open standards such as
XML and SOAP and the focus on communication among
applications have created an environment where
XML Web Services are becoming the platform for
application integration.

• ASP.NET is the preferred technology for
  implementing Web Services. It supports service
  requests using SOAP over HTTP, as well as HTTP
  GET or POST. ASP.NET Web Services automatically
  generate WSDL files.
• The .NET Framework SDK also provides tools to
  generate proxy classes that client applications
  can use to access Web Services.
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET provides additional
  tools to help you build, deploy, and consume Web
  Services. For example, the IDE generates
  client-side proxies from WSDL files.

25
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
Almost all applications must access an external
data store, and Microsoft .NET provides a
powerful and extensible framework for data
access. ADO.NET allows consistent access to a
number of data sources.

• ADO.NET supports the accepted industry standard
  ODBC and OLE DB which allow .NET applications to
  access virtually an relational database
  management systems (RDMS).
• ADO.NET Manager Providers provide direct,
  low-level access to an RDMS using a consistent
  client API. Microsoft provides a Manager
  Provider for SQL Server, Oracle, OLE DB, and
  ODBC.
• Extensible Data Provider framework allows 3rd
  party vendors to create optimized data providers
  for their specific systems.
• ADO.NET has native support for XML that allows
  data sets to be easily serialized for transport
  or persistence.

26
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
Visual Studio .NET is an end-to-end tool for
designing, developing, debugging, and deploying
secure applications for Microsoft Windows, the
Web, and mobile devices.

• Build a broad range of applications for Microsoft
  Windows, the Web, and devices.
• Contains intuitive visual designers, data access
  tools, client- and server-side visual designers,
  and inherent support for XML Web Services.
• Provides a unified integrated development
  environment (IDE) and a choice of programming
  languagesincluding Microsoft Visual Basic .NET,
  Microsoft Visual C .NET, Microsoft Visual
  C .NET, and Microsoft Visual J .NET.

27
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
The Microsoft Windows Server System provides the
infrastructure for building, deploying, and
operating applications and Web Services. Key
Windows Server System products include

• Microsoft Application Center 2000 for scale-out
  technologies optimal for Web applications.
• Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 for XML-based
  business process orchestration across
  applications, services, and companies.
• Microsoft Commerce Server 2000 for online
  e-commerce.
• Microsoft Content Management Server 2001 to build
  and deploy content-driven Web sites.
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 for email and
  collaboration.
• Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration
  Server 2000 to provide a firewall.
• Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 for
  integrating mainframe data.
• Microsoft Mobile Information Server 2002 for
  delivering data to wireless devices such as
  mobile phones.
• Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 to deliver
  solutions for operations management.
• Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001 for
  finding, sharing, and publishing business
  information through corporate intranets.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 for storing and
  retrieving data.

28
3/Microsoft-based Architectures
Microsoft offers a wide range of client operating
systems that power devices ranging from desktop
computers to smart phones. These products
support both XML and industry standards for
wireless communication. Microsoft operating
systems include

• Windows XP - The fastest and most reliable
  version of Windows that works seamlessly with
  .NET-connected software.
• Windows 2000 Professional - The Windows operating
  system for business desktop and laptop systems.
• Windows CE .NET - The operating system that
  enables developers to build the next generation
  of mobile and small footprint devices.
• Windows Smartphone 2002 - The mobile phone that
  lets you operate in the .NET universe,
  communicating by means of voice and text.

29
3/Microsoft-based Architectures

• PROs
• End-to-end technology vendor can provide all
  the integrated components
• Productivity tools and technologies are easy to
  use
• Strong alliance with Accenture excellent
  support from Microsoft
• Vendor solvency 60 billion in cash
• Multi-language support choose from several
  including C and VB.NET

• CONs
• Platform dependence .NET must currently run on
  proprietary Microsoft systems
• Security must be sure to perform strict audit
  and apply all updates

30
Knowledge Capital

• Resources
• https//mso.accenture.com/
• https//se.accenture.com/
• http//www.microsoft.com/net/
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/
• http//www.gotdotnet.com/
• http//www.asp.net/

31
Java based architectures

• Michele Arpaia
• IT Professional

32
4/Java-based Architectures
Java-based architectures rely on standardized,
modular components built with the Java language.
They provide a complete set of services to those
components, and handle many details of
application behavior automatically, without
complex programming.
The J2EE platform takes advantage of many
features of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition
(J2SE), such as "Write Once, Run Anywhere"
portability, JDBC API for database access, CORBA
technology for interaction with existing
enterprise resources, and a security model that
protects data even in internet applications.
33
4/Java-based Architectures
There are 3 different flavors of Java J2ME
Micro Edition for Java-enabled phones, PDAs,
etc. J2SE Standard Edition for common services
and thick client apps J2EE Enterprise Edition
for web applications, Web Services, messaging,
XML, etc. J2EE provides a set of standards for
developing modular, multi-tier enterprise
architectures. J2EE is a specification not a
product. Sun and the Java community rely on
vendors to create products that adhere to the
specification.
34
4/Java-based Architectures

• J2EE provides developers with a specification for
  developing multi-tier enterprise applications.

• The J2EE application model partitions
  applications the work needed to implement a
  multi-tier service into two parts the business
  and presentation logic to be implemented by the
  developer, and the standard system services
  provided by the Java platform.
• To better control and manage these applications,
  the business functions to support these various
  uses are conducted in the middle tier.
• Java-based applications often rely on the
  Enterprise Information System (EIS)-Tier to store
  the enterprises business-critical data. This
  data and the systems that manage it are at the
  inner-core of the enterprise.

35
4/Java-based Architectures

• The J2EE-based Application Architecture consists
  of four main tiers

36
4/Java-based Architectures
The JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology provides an
extensible way to generate dynamic content for a
Web client.

• JSP technology mixes standard, static HTML with
  Java code to dynamically generate content. The
  Java code for the dynamic portions is enclosed in
  special tags, most of which start with lt and
  end with gt. These sections of embedded code
  are typically called Scriptlets.
• JSP technology allows developers to extract
  commonly used scriptlets into external objects
  called Custom JSP Tags. Custom Tags allow
  developers to write logic once, and then reuse it
  across their entire application.
• Similarly, the Servlet 2.3 specification
  introduced a collection of reusable tags called
  JSP Standard Tag Libraries (JSTL). These tags
  cover the most commonly used scriptlets and
  provide significant performance benefits.

37
4/Java-based Architectures
Java Servlets were designed as a means of
extending the functionality of a Web Server. 

• Servlets are a portable platform- and web
  server-independent means of delivering dynamic
  content to a web client.
• Servlets receive a request from a client,
  dynamically generate the response (possibly
  querying business services to fulfill the
  request), and then send the response containing
  an HTML or XML document to the client.
• Servlets arent just for web applications. They
  are also commonly used as interfaces to
  Java-based Web Services because they are simple
  to code, and because they can accept and return
  XML messages.

38
4/Java-based Architectures

• Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) is a server-side
  technology for developing and deploying
  components containing the business logic of an
  enterprise application. EJBs contain the
  following characteristics

• EJBs are scalable and transactional and are more
  resource intensive than regular Java objects,
  therefore, their use should be limited to
  situations where their benefits are truly
  required especially when high performance is
  critical
• EJB server provides system-level services such as
  transaction management, concurrency control, and
  security.
• EJB technology provides a distributed component
  model that enables developers to focus on solving
  business problems while relying on the EJB server
  to handle complex system-level issues.
• There are three types of EJBs
• Session beans
• Entity beans
• Message-Driven beans

39
Session Beans

• One of the three types of Enterprise JavaBeans is
  a session bean.

• A session bean provides some service on behalf of
  a requesting client, and usually represents a
  business process. For example, a session bean
  can perform complex calculations or make changes
  to a database.
• Session beans can be stateless or stateful (i.e.,
  maintain conversation context across methods and
  transactions). There is a performance and
  scalability cost to stateful session beans so
  stateless EJBs are more commonly used.
• Session beans are transient, therefore if a
  session beans container crashes, any uncommitted
  information or processing is lost.

40
4/Java-based Architectures
The second type of Enterprise JavaBeans is an
entity bean.

• An entity bean is a persistent object that
  represents data maintained in a data store and
  usually represents a business entity. An entity
  bean can manage its own persistence (bean-managed
  persistence) or it can delegate this function to
  its container (container-managed persistence).
• Entity beans are not transient, therefore, if the
  container in which an entity bean is hosted
  crashes, the entity bean, its primary key, and
  any remote references survive the crash.
• Container-managed persistence usually comes at a
  very high performance cost due to the
  object-relational mapping complexities.

41
4/Java-based Architectures
The third type of Enterprise JavaBeans is a
message-driven bean.

• Message-driven beans are similar to Session Beans
  in that they typically perform services, however,
  they are only accessible via messages.
• Message-driven beans act as listeners on message
  queues. They are typically used in conjunction
  with JMS (Java Messaging Service) when
  asynchronous processing is required.
  Asynchronous messages are those messages that are
  pushed to the application, but dont require a
  reply.
• Message-driven beans typically call other EJBs
  (Session or Entity) to perform their operations.
• Message-driven beans and JMS are becoming
  increasingly popular in Web Services and other
  service-oriented architectures. They allow
  applications to receive messages even if some
  backend systems are down. When the systems come
  back up, messages will be pulled from the queue
  and processed by the bean.

42
4/Java-based Architectures

• A services middle-tier business functions must
  access and update the information in the
  EIS-tier. Several standard Java service APIs
  provide basic access to these systems

• JDBC - the standard API for accessing relational
  data from Java
• Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) - the
  standard API for accessing information in
  enterprise name and directory services
• Java Message Service (JMS) - the standard API
  for sending and receiving asynchronous messages
• Java API for XML Parsing (JAXP) - supports
  processing of XML documents using DOM, SAX, and
  XSLT.
• Java Transaction API (JTA) - the standard
  interface for demarcating transactions
• J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) - defines
  interfaces for the integration of enterprise
  applications (ERP, CRM, etc.) with Java-based
  applications

43
4/Java-based Architectures

• PROs
• Platform independence
• Scalability to meet demand variations
• Simplified architecture and development due to
  split of presentation and dynamic content
• Multivendor support
• Flexible security model
• Functionally complete standard libraries

• CONs
• Complexity
• Possible integration of multiple vendor solutions
• Longevity of vendors
• Skill set of individuals

44
4/Knowledge Capital

• Java Resources
• http//java.sun.com
• http//webdeveloper.com/java/
• http//www.theserverside.com
• http//dev2dev.bea.com
• http//www.ibm.com/developerworks/
• http//www.apache.org
• Accenture Resources
• https//se.accenture.com/
• https//experts.accenture.com
• https//onesource.accenture.com
• https//webservices.accenture.com

45
Similarities Differences between J2EE .NET

• Michele Arpaia
• IT Professional

46
5/Strategic Comparison
47
5/Strategic Comparison
Java and Microsoft .NET have very similar
conceptual architectures.
.NET
Java
Source Code
VB, C, C, COBOL, others
Java
Compiler
Compiler
Intermediate Code
MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language)
Java byte code

• CLR (Common Language Runtime)
• Wintel platform today, but likely to be ported

• JRE (Java Runtime Env. aka JVM)
• Many OS (Sun, IBM, HP, Linux, Wintel )
• Many App servers (BEA, Apache, IBM, Sun )

Run Time
Current Platform Support

• Intel x86
• When CLR is ported then other .NET applications
  will run on other platforms

Intel x86, Sun, HP, IBM
48
5/Strategic Comparison
You can see that there is tremendous overlap
between the J2EE and .NET platform technologies.
How, then, does one choose between them?

• Vendor Neutrality
• Sun technologies are supposed to be vendor
  neutral. But the neutrality nowdays is still far
  from being a reality. Lets hear what Paul
  Harmons admits
• The reality, at the moment, is that if you want
  to develop an EJB application, you should stick
  with a single vendor
• On the other hand, .NET is concivied to be not
  neutral at all.

• Framework Support
• When building a large, eCommerce solution, it
  goes without saying that one does not want to
  start from scratch. One wants to build on top of
  a well defined and tested eCommerce framework.
  The use of such a framework can dramatically
  reduce development costs, probably by a factor of
  at least 10.
• The .NET platform includes such an eCommerce
  framework called Commerce Server. At this point,
  there is no equivalent vendor-neutral framework
  in the J2EE space.

49
5/Strategic Comparison

• Overall Maturity
• J2EE deployments are alive and healthy, running a
  variety of mission-critical business problems
  today. However, when looking past the surface, it
  should be noted that there are some identifiable
  areas of risk where J2EE lacks maturity
• The automatic persistence provided EJB is still
  immature.
• The Java Connector Architecture (JCA) is new.
• All web service support is new.
• For Microsoft.NET, the story is a bit different.
  Some of .NET is based on Windows DNA, which also
  runs a variety of mission-critical web sites
  today and enjoys success. However
• With the new CLR, a good portion of the
  underlying .NET platform has been substantially
  rewritten. Indeed, the platform itself is
  currently only available in a beta version.
• C is new.
• All web service support is new.

50
5/Strategic Comparison

• Market Perception
• When comparing two platforms, your first instinct
  is probably to compare the technologies. The
  unfortunate reality is that good technology
  rarely succeeds in the marketplace because it's
  good technology. Usually it's the technology with
  the best marketing that wins.
• J2EE is an extremely well-marketed platform
  because it is being marketed by an entire
  industry of 50 assorted vendors. This network of
  interdependent businesses form a virtual
  marketing machine, and the result is a fantastic
  market perception for J2EE.
• .NET's marketing strength stems from the fact
  that Microsoft knows how to market a platform.
  They have put their "A" team on marketing .NET,
  as is apparent in the industry hype surrounding
  the platform.
• Microsoft's advantage is also that it announced
  it's webservices strategy before the J2EE
  players, which gave it market perception.
• So in the marketing front, we give the nod to
  Microsoft for doing the best job in hyping their
  platform--so far.

51
5/Strategic Comparison

• Tools
• The Sun J2EE Product Portfolio includes Forte, a
  modular and extensible Java-based IDE that
  pre-dates both Sun J2EE and .NET. Developers who
  prefer other IDEs for Java development are free
  to use WebGains Visual Café, IBMs VisualAge for
  Java, Borlands JBuilder, and more. Numerous 3rd
  party
• tools and open source-code products are
  available.
• Microsoft has always been a strong tools vendor,
  and that has not changed. As part of its launch
  of .NET, Microsoft released a beta version of the
  Visual Studio.NET integrated development
  environment. Visual Studio.NET supports all
  languages supported by earlier releases of Visual
  Studio - with the notable
• exception of Java. In its place, the IDE supports
  C, Microsofts new object-oriented programming
  language, which bears a remarkable resemblance to
  Java. Visual Studio.NET has some interesting
  productivity features including Web Forms, a
  web-based version of Win Forms, .NETs GUI
  component set.

52
5/Strategic Comparison

• Performance
• A platform performs if it yields an acceptable
  response time under a specified user load. The
  definition of what is 'acceptable' changes for
  each business problem. To achieve acceptable
  performance, it is important that the underlying
  infrastructure empowers you to build
  high-performing systems.
• In general J2EE offers many tactics to cope with
  performance issues altought this flexibility
  requires well-educated developers.
• Microsoft .NET tends to perform better because
  framework is tailored around a well-known server
  infrastructure. In any case there are no
  opportunities for developers to introduce errors
  into systems so it is less flexible.

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5/Strategic Comparison

• Migration from previous platform
• A J2EE does not impose many migration problems.
  The Java Connector Architecture (JCA) as well as
  the web services support in J2EE is brand new and
  will require new code, but those are minor
  overall.
• Although Microsoft.NET is based on MTS and COM,
  we are concerned that the migration to .NET will
  be taxing compared to J2EE. First off, .NET is
  based on the managed code framework, which
  steals a lot of ideas from COM and MTS, but its
  still an entirely new infrastructure based on an
  entirely new
• code base CLR. Taking advantage of the most
  valuable aspects of the CLR impose one-time
  frictions.
• For example to accommodate a Common Type System
  (CTS) which standardizes on data types used
  between languages, the original Visual Basic data
  types have been dismissed. Consequently, code
  dependent upon those original Visual Basic data
  types will break, and there is currently no
  migration tool.

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Conclusive considerations

• Michele Arpaia
• IT Professional

55
6/Conclusive considerations
Both Java and .NET are big improvements over the
preceding generation of systems development
technologies. This is a general comparison of the
basic abilities.
.NET
Java
Comment

• Both technologies provide a rich set of class
  libraries for networking and Internet integration

• Interoperability

Excellent
Excellent

• Availability/Reliability

• Java is more mature and is available on more
  platforms
• Both provide solid reliability

Good
Excellent

• Performance

• Both Java and .NET offer good performance
• Both Java and .NET introduce some overhead due to
  their reliance on a Runtime layer

Very Good
Very Good

• Developer Productivity

• Java and the .NET programming languages are rich
  object oriented languages with many built-in
  classes to re-use
• Microsofts Integrated Development Environment
  (IDE) is ahead of those offered by the Java
  community

Excellent
Very Good

• Cost of Ownership

• Java and .NET both improve on the ability to
  build and deploy applications that are easier to
  maintain and support

Good
Good
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6/Conclusive considerations

• Microsoft Position
• Choose your programming language (C, C, VB)
  they all work together
• Today you are limited to a Windows OS and Intel
  compatible hardware
• The specifications for Microsoft Intermediate
  Language (MSIL) and the Common Language Runtime
  (CLR) are in the public domain so other vendors
  are free to develop their own CLRs and language
  compilers that support the .NET framework
• Microsoft has submitted C, the Common Type
  System (CTS) and the Common Language
  Specification (CLS)specifications to the European
  Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA)
  standards body and both were ratified in December
  2001
• Fujitsu has developed a .NET COBOL compiler
• Ultimately the .NET framework could support many
  platforms and many development languages
• .NET represents a major strategy shift for
  Microsoft with regard to Intellectual Property

57
6/Conclusive considerations

• Sun Position
• Use the Java programming language Write it
  once, run it everywhere
• Choose your OS and Hardware platform
• Applications are portable across OS and Hardware
  platforms
• Choose your favourite IDE
• Choose your Application Server J2EE compliant
  (30)
• Recent releases of Java have focused on
  enhancements for Servers and Wireless devices --
  not GUI and desktop enhancements

58
6/Conclusive considerations

• Arguments for .NET and against J2EE
• .NET has Microsoft's A-team marketing it
• .NET released their web services story before
  J2EE did, and thus has some mind-share
• .NET has a better story for shared context today
  than J2EE
• .NET has an awesome tool story with Visual
  Studio.NET
• .NET has a simpler programming model, enabling
  rank-and-file developers to be productive without
  shooting themselves in the foot
• .NET gives you language neutrality when
  developing new eBusiness applications, whereas
  J2EE makes you treat other languages as separate
  applications
• .NET benefits from being strongly interweaved
  with the underlying operating system

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6/Conclusive considerations

• Arguments for .J2EE and against .NET
• J2EE is a proven platform, with a few new web
  services APIs. .NET is a rewrite and introduces
  risk as with any first-generation technology
• J2EE is a more advanced programming model,
  appropriate for well-trained developers who want
  to build more advanced object models and take
  advantage of performance features
• J2EE lets you take advantage of existing hardware
  you may have
• J2EE gives you platform neutrality, including
  Windows. You also get good (but not free)
  portability. This isolates you from heterogeneous
  deployment environments.
• J2EE has a better legacy integration story
  through the Java Connector Architecture (JCA)
• J2EE lets you use any operating system you
  prefer, such as Windows, UNIX, or mainframe.
• Developers can use the environment they are most
  productive in.
• According to Gartner, there are 2.5 million Java
  developers. IDC predicts this will grow to 4
  million by 2004. 78 universities teach Java, and
  50 of universities require Java.

60
6/Conclusive considerations

• My opinion
• The .NET vs. Java debate is not good versus bad.
  Its about what is more fit for purpose. They
  are both excellent technologies and developer
  tools.
• A .NET GUI application for desktop Windows is
  consistent with the strategies being implemented
  by other software vendors and other major
  industry players.
• Java is commonly used to build server based
  application components for large scale, high
  volume web sites. However, .NET is gaining
  momentum in this area as well.

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Questions and Answers
Any questions?
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