COM+ and the Battle for the Middle Tier [Paperback]

Roger Sessions (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471317179 | ISBN-13: 978-0471317173 | Publication Date: January 31, 2000 | Edition: 1

COM+, the next generation of COM, DCOM, and MTS, is here! Now best-selling author Roger Sessions offers an unbiased introduction to COM+ and the fascinating world of Component-Oriented Middleware (COMWare). In this book, you'll learn the new features of COM+ and how it fits in with other Microsoft technologies, how COM+ compares to CORBA 3.0 and Enterprise JavaBeans, and how to plan your future N-tier enterprise applications. To demonstrate how Microsoft's middle-tier technologies are being utilized in some of today's largest applications, Sessions then presents three case studies from Dell, Silknet, and Acentris-complete with business requirements, architectural overviews, system benchmarks, and lessons learned.

Whether you're an IT executive planning your company's middle-tier strategy, a programmer trying to understand the new features of COM+, or an analyst interested in the differences between COM+, EJB, and CORBA 3.0, this book is for you.

Advance praise for Roger Sessions's new book:

"Roger has a gift for relating the somewhat esoteric topic of distributed computing to the everyday world. COM+ and the Battle for the Middle Tier provides a fine introduction to the problems addressed by the middle tier and the solutions offered by Microsoft's COM+."- MARY KIRTLAND Program Manager, Microsoft Corp.

"Although I often don't agree with Roger Sessions's opinions and conclusions, I always enjoy reading his work. This book on COM+ is no exception. Roger uses simple real-world scenarios to explain very complex concepts about distributed computing,components, and scalable transaction processing, and his frequent play on words had me laughing out loud. For those who are true believers of the Microsoft way, this book may become your bible. It certainly will provide you with plenty of arguments to defend your technology choice. For those who believe in CORBA and EJB, this book will help you understand the strong appeal that Windows NT and COM+ have. (But keep the faith and don't be swayed.)"- ANNE THOMAS Senior Analyst, Patricia Seybold Group

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Recommended: Anyone debating whether to chose COM+ or CORBA should buy Sessions" (UNIX NT, January 2001)

From the Back Cover

COM+, the next generation of COM, DCOM, and MTS, is here! Now best-selling author Roger Sessions offers an unbiased introduction to COM+ and the fascinating world of Component-Oriented Middleware (COMWare). In this book, you'll learn the new features of COM+ and how it fits in with other Microsoft technologies, how COM+ compares to CORBA 3.0 and Enterprise JavaBeans, and how to plan your future N-tier enterprise applications. To demonstrate how Microsoft's middle-tier technologies are being utilized in some of today's largest applications, Sessions then presents three case studies from Dell, Silknet, and Acentris-complete with business requirements, architectural overviews, system benchmarks, and lessons learned.

Whether you're an IT executive planning your company's middle-tier strategy, a programmer trying to understand the new features of COM+, or an analyst interested in the differences between COM+, EJB, and CORBA 3.0, this book is for you.

Advance praise for Roger Sessions's new book:

"Roger has a gift for relating the somewhat esoteric topic of distributed computing to the everyday world. COM+ and the Battle for the Middle Tier provides a fine introduction to the problems addressed by the middle tier and the solutions offered by Microsoft's COM+."- MARY KIRTLAND Program Manager, Microsoft Corp.

"Although I often don't agree with Roger Sessions's opinions and conclusions, I always enjoy reading his work. This book on COM+ is no exception. Roger uses simple real-world scenarios to explain very complex concepts about distributed computing,components, and scalable transaction processing, and his frequent play on words had me laughing out loud. For those who are true believers of the Microsoft way, this book may become your bible. It certainly will provide you with plenty of arguments to defend your technology choice. For those who believe in CORBA and EJB, this book will help you understand the strong appeal that Windows NT and COM+ have. (But keep the faith and don't be swayed.)"- ANNE THOMAS Senior Analyst, Patricia Seybold Group

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 31, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471317179
• ISBN-13: 978-0471317173
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,108,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is it a technical or marketing book?, February 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: COM+ and the Battle for the Middle Tier (Paperback)

It is unclear weather the book is a marketing or technical document. For example, the comparison between COM and other frameworks is completely biased. The book doesn't deal with the following issues: 1. Object-Relational automated mapping tools 2. The problematic nature of a component specification dictated by a single vendor 3. The problematic nature of committing to COM, especially due to Microsoft's anti trust legal issue and the strong ties between COM and NT technology.

I liked the Don Box COM books Effective Com and Essential COM much better.

Overall rating: OK

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a clear, understandable explanation of COM, March 3, 2000

By 

Michael J. Murray (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: COM+ and the Battle for the Middle Tier (Paperback)

When I first started reading this, I thought it was a comedy. Imagine comparing eCommerce to Starbucks operations! But, then I figured out, Roger was so confident in his grasp of all the technical concepts, that he did not need to be worried about how non-technical it appeared to his readers. You don't write the way he does unless you have great depth of understanding of the issues. He gives psuedo-code examples of every issue. His analysis of CORBA, Enterprise JavaBeans, and COM+ (MTS) is fair and insightful, allowing the reader to see the similarities as well as the differences. This is indispensable if you want to make a choice now about how to program web stuff. You don't want to start out making database connections from your client just to get the boss off your back, if that approach won't handle any more than a few concurrent users, no matter how quickly you can get the site up. You need to know why with some COM platforms you don't need to worry about threads, and pooling. Unfortunately, if you listen to the vendors of the platforms, you won't find this information, until too late. Read the whole book before you decide if you're sceptical, and then you'll see how practical it is to get your thinking straight before you start coding.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview, March 15, 2000

By 

Dirk A. Rodgers - See all my reviews

This review is from: COM+ and the Battle for the Middle Tier (Paperback)

This book provides the component that is missing from most programming books: the WHY. WHY should COM+ be used, WHY is it better in this type of application and not in that. Too many programmers buy "how-to" books and begin applying a technology before they even ask these questions. Mr. Sessions has done an excellent job of answering these questions, but don't buy this book expecting it to explain the mechanincs of applying COM+. This isn't its purpose.

Programmers should know why they are using a technology before they apply it. This book will help programmers and managers understand how COM+ is positioned against the other middle-ware technologies.