Today's Big Web Opportunity

Within the next few years, business-to-business (B2B) commerce is expected to experience phenomenal growth. Recently, Forrester Research estimated that B2B e-commerce revenue in the United States will increase from $109 billion in 1999 to $2.7 trillion by 2004.¹ The reasons for this prediction are not trade secrets: the web helps organizations streamline processes, such as manufacturing and distribution, so they can do business more efficiently with their resellers and suppliers. It gives them a faster way to compare prices and availability of goods and services they need to buy. And it's an excellent way to show global customers what they have to offer.

Along with many single-company sites, the Internet contains an increasing number of portals that deliver what are known as web services, which use the existing infrastructure to deliver data. For example, request for quotes (RFQs) enable businesses to solicit the best prices for items they want to buy using a reverse auction process. To continue offering these profitable new services, enterprises need a standard, cost-effective way to exchange data and information over the network. It must enable developers to write applications that can run on any platform, and allow everyone to view data in a similar way, no matter what system or operating environment they are using. We're seeing more web sites that can take orders from customers, transmit medical records, even run factory equipment and scientific instruments remotely. They all need security mechanisms to protect valuable information, even as they make data more available to trusted vendors and customers.

New types of applications that incorporate the latest in sound, interactivity, and telephony technology are making web sites more functional and appealing. But they also raise interoperability problems that can be difficult to solve in today's heterogenerous environments.

Is your enterprise ready to safely enter the growing B2B marketplace without endangering your corporate data? Is it possible to find a solution that supports multiple languages and cross-platform interoperability without locking you into one vendor? This document will explain how new technologies are enabling Internet commerce to grow at a rate that amazes even veteran web-watchers.

Getting Ready for B2B

It's clear that before even trying to compete in the emerging B2B marketplace, enterprises must be ready with a flexible, scalable, highly available dot-com architecture. Once a customer or supplier finds that your online catalog is out of date, or a big order goes astray because you couldn't track it through manufacturing, they'll be gone. And what's even worse, they're probably at your competitor's web site.

In a dot-com ready enterprise, the network doesn't just make work for system administrators -- it actually enhances efficiency and creates new business opportunities while letting you take advantage of the latest ways to communicate via the Internet. Your developers can use it to produce and deploy distributed applications that include security mechanisms, protecting your corporate data without putting roadblocks in the path of authorized users. By integrating your enterprise applications, communication and collaboration are encouraged. And your investment in legacy information and applications is protected.

Let's Get Started

What does it take to get your enterprise ready for B2B? To begin with, you need web applications that run just like regular ones, and just as fast, too. There's no need to cut back on applications from third-party vendors as long as they are cross-platform-remember, your employees are using everything from laptops and PDAs to cell phones and PCs. Your staff needs secure, convenient access to data, whether they're working on the road, at home, or in the office. Because in today's global B2B enterprise, the demand for up-to-the-minute product information, price lists, and press releases is 24x7. And eventually, you'll also want to incorporate the latest in sound and interactivity into your web site. This will make the job easier on your developers by giving them the tools that enable them to work in their favorite hardware and software environment, with no need to port applications to different operating systems.

But don't worry. This isn't as complicated as it may sound. A complete solution already exists for high-performance computing on both the server and client side. And, you won't have to buy everything from one vendor. In fact, you'll find it remarkably easy to integrate your favorite legacy applications with the latest software from just about anyone. There's a good reason why the B2B world runs on open standards -- because the only thing that matters is communication. Without it, e-commerce wouldn't exist.

How does your organization rate in the dot-com race? Have you already deployed a solution that executes consistently on any platform, from servers to PCs, set-top boxes to wireless devices? Are you able to enforce fine-grained control over virtually all aspects of the enterprise, right down to the individual components of your security software? If not, take a look at a solution that offers all this, and more.

Teaching the Internet to Communicate

The human brain is amazing -- provide a few hints and it can figure out the rest. That's why you can look at this page, see some large text followed by chunks of smaller text and know that it is a brochure, not a grocery list or a bank account statement. But computers aren't that smart. They must be told exactly what things are, how they relate, and how to deal with them. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is designed to make information self-describing, a simple change in how computers communicate that solves some of the web's biggest problems. For instance, we all know the Internet is

Five Practical Benefits of XML 1. Structure to model data at any level of complexity   2. Extensibility to define new tags as needed   3. Validation to check data for structural correctness   4. Media independence to publish content in multiple formats   5. Vendor and platform independence to process any conforming document using standard commercial software or even simple text tools

a speed-of-light network that often slows to a crawl; and although nearly every kind of information is available online, it can be maddeningly difficult to find the one piece you need. Both problems are partly due to the limitations of HTML, the web's main language. Although it's the most successful electronic publishing language ever invented, HTML is superficial -- concerned mainly with the appearance of text not with what the text signifies. This means that when you order an item, a distant server has to process the information, because the HTML-powered web page can't handle this kind of transaction by itself.

The Simpler, the Better

The solution is simple: use tags that say what the information is, not what it looks like. For example, label the attributes of a shirt not as boldface, paragraph, row, and column (like HTML does), but as price, size, quantity, and color. This enables a program to recognize your document as a customer order, so it can respond immediately, instead of waiting for a server somewhere to tell it what to do. The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) was the first step in this direction, and it works very well. However, because SGML is too complex for most programmers, the XML standard was created. Since it was completed in early 1998 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), XML has spread like wildfire through all fields of science and into industries ranging from manufacturing to medicine. XML is expected to revolutionize network-oriented applications, especially in the area of data interchange.

Just Follow The Rules

The XML language consists of rules that anyone can follow to create a markup language that leverages existing infrastructure. The rules ensure that a single compact program, the parser, can process all these new languages. Just as HTML created a way for every computer to read documents on the Internet, XML makes it possible to create a language that everyone can read and write. Even languages that use a different character set, like Arabic or Japanese, can be read by software that is properly programmed in XML -- enabling the exchange of information not only between different computer systems, but also across national and cultural boundaries.

Take a Load Off Web Servers

Right now, computing devices connected to the web -- whether they are powerful PCs or tiny pocket planners -- can't do much more than get a form, fill it out, then send it back to the web server. As XML is incorporated into more and more web sites, these devices will be able to do more of the processing on the spot. That should not only take a load off web servers but also reduce network traffic dramatically. And information will become easier to find.

The Integration of XML in the Java^TM 2 Platform

It's hard to imagine two more complementary technologies: while the Java^TM 2 platform provides a secure and portable application environment, XML does the same for data, in a clean, platform-neutral way.

XML and Java technology are united by a common purpose: platform independence. Together, the two technologies are enabling a new generation of web applications in areas ranging from EDI to e-commerce, workflow management to enterprise resource planning. Your programmers can build on the XML standard, knowing that their implementations will be compatible with the Java platform. Wherever there is a need for information exchange on network systems, XML and Java technologies are the optimum choice.

Java^TM: The Universal Language

The Java programming language is now an accepted answer to the question of how to make all kinds of systems -- from smart cards to supercomputers -- talk to each other, even though they use widely varying system software. On the web, the Java 2 platform enables you to share resources with your customers and suppliers, tightening business relationships and increasing revenues, because it streamlines communication and the flow of information between offices and around the globe. The fact that both Java technology and XML are Unicode-aware also enhances language independence.

Just about every time you log onto the Internet, you run into small, interactive programs called applets -- created with the Java programming language -- that work inside your browser. Other kinds of Java technology-enabled software run directly on your computer, server, mainframe, and other devices, without the aid of a browser. For B2B commerce, Java technology enables the types of features associated with server-side enterprise applications, such as high-performance database access and other mid-tier services.

Introducing the Java^TM 2 platform

You can develop your applications on a single platform and distribute them to heterogeneous systems across your enterprise. Centralized administration means that installations, upgrades, maintenance, and troubleshooting can be performed from a single desktop, saving time and money. And by leveraging existing technology to expand your infrastructure, the Java 2 platform protects your investment. The fact that Java technology provides one of the most popular commercial, object-oriented languages has encouraged hundreds of software vendors, thousands of companies, and millions of software developers to adopt it.

The Java 2 platform includes the Java 2 SDK and the Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (JRE). Together, they deliver what you need to dot-com your enterprise: easier web development and deployment, enterprise interoperability, security advancements, faster performance, and more. Platform independence is accomplished by wrapping each platform's unique characteristics into the JRE. Then, a Java virtual machine works with the operating system to execute the code. This frees the programmer to concentrate on building application GUI and logic, and simplifies the task of deploying applications on multiple platforms.

In addition, the Java 2 platform comes with tools such as a compiler, debugger, and more, along with a rich set of libraries and foundation classes for designing GUIs, implementing security, building multilanguage applications, accessing databases, and networking.

Promote Innovation, Preserve Compatibility

Sun's XML Commitment

Sun Microsystems, along with other major vendors such as IBM, Novell, Oracle, and Microsoft, is a strong supporter of the XML standard. Jon Bosak, a Sun engineer, is generally regarded as the father of XML. After using a more complex protocol, SGML, to manage technical documentation, he realized the limitations of HTML. Bosak obtained Sun's financial backing and built a team for the World Wide Web Consortium effort that delivered the final XML specification. To go beyond the development of XML and promote an open process for industry-specific XML schemas, Sun has been a driving force behind OASIS, the first nonprofit group dedicated to this cause.

Sun is also the creator of the Java platform, with one overarching goal: to promote innovation while preserving compatibility. XML is fundamental to Sun's plans for the transmission of mission-critical enterprise data and is being used to make Sun's Enterprise JavaBeans^TM technology even more portable. In the growing electronic marketplace, Sun will compete-and thrive-through the excellence of its products.

From Client to Server, and Back Again

It's easier and faster to deploy applications that incorporate Java technology and XML, a real advantage when distributing business-size applications over a network with multiple operating systems. By using caching to eliminate restrictive download times for large applets, the Java 2 Platform provides a scalable solution that offers everyone on the network fast, easy access to the most up-to-date software versions. In addition, Java HotSpot technology helps make this the fastest release of the Java Platform to date-improving startup time by 40 percent, while using 25 percent less memory for the typical Java technology-based application. Optimized code compiling, enhanced memory allocation and garbage collection, and thread synchronization also boost programmer productivity.

For implementing XML-based solutions, Sun's JavaServer Pages^TM and Enterprise JavaBeans technologies are ideal for building applications ranging from inventory tracking systems to tools that track employee benefits and sales commissions. And when it comes to the server side of things, the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE^TM) defines the standard for developing and deploying enterprise applications. Based on modular, reusable components, it comes with a complete set of services that help simplify enterprise application development.

XML's metadata flexibility and data portability give Java technology a big leg up in making data even more portable over a network, while the Java language improves productivity compared to C and C++. XML and Java technology are both Unicode aware, easing the way for international commerce. They also preserve access to legacy applications and environments. By connecting with existing databases and distributed applications, as well as supporting native APIs and classes, applications written for the Java platform seamlessly interoperate with productivity applications and legacy systems. Text, graphics, and software components can be moved between Java technology-based and native platform applications with drag-and-drop ease. Swing portable GUIs ensure a graphically rich user experience host operating system.

A Boon to B2B

The Java 2 platform is today's technology of choice for developers working with XML. And the proof is obvious. Most of the available parsers and popular tools are written for the Java 2 platform. While developers are attracted to its portability and object-orientation, they also appreciate the sheer efficiency of the Java language. For B2B, Java technology simplifies the process of wiring programs into most relational database systems as well as integrating SQL access into object-oriented Java language-based systems. Heterogeneous development teams can build mutually integrated systems without leaving their chosen programming environments. An integrated plug-in architecture enables extremely lightweight applications, with no need for enterprise add-on options. And if you need a simple way to create programs such as database charting tools or currency exchange services, the JavaBeans^TM architecture lets you combine custom-developed and third-party components.

Security Climbs Out of the Sandbox

Now, security climbs out of the sand box with an enterprise-class, tiered security system that eases web-based deployment. All code-remote or local-undergoes security checks that scale user, group, and system rights down to the distributed object model, providing more ways than ever to protect your data.

Dot-Comming Your Enterprise

It's Time to Seize the B2B Opportunity

You know you need to expand your business on the Net -- before your competition does. A driving force behind today's B2B marketplace is Sun's innovative Java technology. It brings portability to application development, while XML makes sure all your applications are integrated, within the enterprise and beyond. It's hard to imagine a better fit. And why even try, when the solution is so simple?

The Java 2 platform delivers everything you need to build feature-rich applications for virtually any computing platform, from smart cards to laptops, PCs to enterprise servers. Widespread industry support makes Java software the perfect partner for the XML protocol. Together, they can help you conquer the world of e-commerce. Or at least grab a generous slice of it.

[ This page was updated: 01-Jun-01 ]