IBM's Patricia Sueltz on Java (Continued)

Fawcette: How much development was involved?

Sueltz: In all these financial applications, we took only 60-90 days to get the application up and running. This includes the client piece, connectivity to the server, and Java for hooking into and managing the program from the server.

Fawcette: It seems like Java and the Internet are a godsend to IBM. You've been saddled with all these incompatible and proprietary systems and suddenly, there's a way to tie them together. By extension, your customers have flat files, DB2 files, Lotus Notes data stores ... is that really the key benefit for your customers—that Java ties the data architectures together?

Sueltz: There is a confluence of factors that made Java important. We have our own developers, who say we need object technology. Java is the next step there. The second benefit is the channel; we've seen the importance of that from the Chairman on down, from the intranet to the extranet. And from a programming model it made a lot of sense. Then there is the ability to tie our customers' platforms together. Cool language. Cool programming environment.

Fawcette: Standards from multiple companies don't have a great track record. Can the great job JavaSoft has done at coordinating efforts from many vendors really be maintained, with these cooperating competitors working in lockstep?

Sueltz: I don't know about lockstep. This is bigger than any one company. This is much like the telecommunications industry, where you had to go to your monopoly phone company to get your proprietary handset. But that community matured, grew up, and focused on standard interfaces.

Java is doing exactly the same thing. You say, "Can we keep that coalition together?" Can we keep an RS232C working? It is about maturing software. Let's quit worrying about what platform we're on.

There's such a backlog of applications, you know that. That's why your publications are so important to the community. Let's raise it up a level so people can write to a set—there may not be a single interface—but a set of interfaces, and that will drive the industry forward.

Fawcette: Is Java a platform, a language, or a product?

Sueltz: It is all three. I don't like the product piece, though. It is a language, it is a standard technology environment for driving us forward.

Fawcette: When you say "product", what don't you like about that?

Sueltz: If Java becomes a product, you will lose the concept of the openness. If Java had come out as a product it would not have flourished as it has.

Fawcette: Will Sun keep Java open?

Sueltz: I don't see evidence [that they won't]. We are good partners with Sun, but I always have the concern of any of us getting caught up in [the success of Java].

Fawcette: In the financial applications you highlighted, Java's role was on the client. But our opinion is that Java's true importance lies in the middle tier, on the server.

Sueltz: Clearly, what we've seen with our retail businesses, is Java's use to tie their inventories together. The middle tier on the back end becomes a key integration point.