I think you misunderstand Microsoft's strategy with SOAP. SOAP _does not_ compete with EJB. SOAP is useful for interobject communication between disparate components. It (I'm talking about some XML based RPC system, not SOAP in particular) is nice for a few reasons:
1) You can bridge any component models. It is a relatively easy process to write RMI stub/skeletons, COM proxy/stubs, or CORBA stub/skeletons to allow interoperability between say, your desktop COM application and your EJB enterprise backend system.
2) It makes WAN deployment really nice. You don't have to worry about firewall configuration issues.
3) It makes it easy to install security filters (as a simple web server extension).
4) It makes it easy to transform a synchronous system into an asynchronous system. Calls can be sent using MQSeries or a JMS provider.
5) It makes for a really open standard. For example, if a competing standard emerges (from say OMG), there is a good chance (barring causality problems or other protocol intricacies) that it could interoperate with SOAP (or any other XML RPC) via a simple XSLT filter.
The list goes on. This is just a sample. SOAP has almost nothing to do with whether you are creating an EJB or an MTS based application (other than Microsoft is the underdog in the space and they want an easy way to interoperate).
Erik
--
Erik Huddleston, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chief Architect, eCustomers.com
Microsoft Java MVP
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wei Jiang [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 7:47 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: EJB cons?: "DCOM is pretty much dead" for Internet
> applications
>
>
> You do not need to worry DCOM:
> http://www.internetwk.com/story/INW19991013S0004
> I do not think the new trick form it will get much
> support neither. Go with the industry!
>
> If you want to *run* EJB *today*, there are some
> issues. But if you want to *develop* and the develop
> period will last six months or longer (I image so),
> there is not many real issues.
>
> Today, you can use freeware, such as Jonas from
> Bull or J2EE from Sun to develop. When you fininsh
> your project, you can migrate to what ever the best
> EJB on the market. You should have little problem
> to migrate to any EJB complaint products, with
> reasonable effort.
>
> Today's issues:
> 1. most product, except J2EE, are EJB 1.0. Your need
> to migrate to EJB1.1 soon, you will not have choices:
> the one stay with EJB1.0 will be out of business soon.
>
> 2. you need do more manual work than EJB hopes. But
> the manual work is nothing compare to any other
> n-tier products. The GUI tools with these products,
> if any, are not mature yet.
>
>
>
>
> --- Ian McCallion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Youval Bronicki wrote:
> >
> > > We are considering to use EJB for an n-tier
> > product. Almost everything
> > > we've read seems to support EJB.
> >
> > > Can somebody list any issues that may discourage
> > us (or point to a relevant
> > > resource)?
> >
> > EJB's main weakness today is that is is a
> > synchronous model. You'll need to wait
> > for EJB2 (or go with proprietary extensions, which a
> > couple of vendors have) if
> > you want integration with asynchronous messaging.
> >
> > > Is CORBA + CORBA Services a serious competitor?
> >
> > No. The only serious competitor is the highly
> > proprietary COM/DCOM from
> > you-know-who.
> >
> > Ian McCallion
> > CICS Business Unit
> > IBM Hursley
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Tel: ++44-1962-818065
> > Fax: ++44-1962-818069
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
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