Rich Internet application (RIA) development didn't used to be a heavyweight competition. Just a few short years ago, when developers wanted to create a browser experience beyond the ordinary -- to incorporate sophisticated dashboards or jazzy special effects, for example -- they could draw from a handful of obscure and fledgling tools. The ingredients of AJAX were still coming together. Even the Flash-driven solutions from Macromedia and Laszlo Systems showed their youth.
Now that Flash is part of Adobe Systems, AJAX is omnipresent, and Microsoft and Sun have entered the game, RIA is as mainstream today as mainstream gets. At the lightweight end of the RIA spectrum, a number of open-source libraries have caught fire. Dojo, Ext, Google Web Toolkit, jQuery, MooTools, Prototype/Scriptaculous, and Yahoo User Interface are ideal for programmers who just need to add a bit of fancy functionality (a date chooser, a data grid, some form preprocessing, etc.) to a page.
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A step up from the open-source tools are commercial AJAX frameworks such as Backbase, Bindows, JackBe, and Tibco General Interface. But can these maintain their edge? With so many good open-source alternatives available, why spring for a so-called "enterprise AJAX" solution?
The reasons range from better technical support and documentation to more polish and flexibility. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to draw significant, categorical differences between the open-source and commercial tools.
As the open-source projects extend their reach, the commercial players are finding niches beyond AJAX. For instance, JackBe's offering has evolved into an "enterprise mashup" platform that ties together HTML, RSS, Web services, and SQL calls. Backbase also has zeroed in on the server side, plus has added support for offline RIAs and released a version of its AJAX framework for Java developers. Laszlo Systems, now the shepherd of a standout open-source RIA platform, focuses on Web 2.0 desktop solutions for businesses and service providers.
This whitepaper explains the terminology and concepts behind Data Replication technologies and establishes some sizing rules through worked examples. Learn the new paradigm in disaster tolerance—protect data anywhere.
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Server virtualization is a popular option for dealing with mounting datacenter costs. Another equally promising approach is the use of an Application Delivery Controller. Citrix NetScaler provides a low-cost way for organizations to reduce their server count and accrue cost savings from a reduction in space, cooling, power and personnel.
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The emergence of WLANs has created a new breed of security threats to enterprise networks.
Included in HP ProCurve WLAN solutions is security technology that alleviates threats from WLANs through:
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Effectively address data protection challenges, implementing solutions that help store and protect business–critical data while cutting costs and improving efficiency and reliability.
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