Toward a Java standard - Technology Information - Brief Article

Spaulding & Slye moves toward applets and thin clients

The decision by the Joint Technical Committee of the International Standards Organization (ISO) to formally anoint Sun Microsystems as Java's standard bearer was welcomed by some IT managers who say they want to see the end of Java uncertainty. "It's encouraging to me that there will be a cross-platform standard and that the competitive landscape will be altered relative to Windows NT," notes Michele Fitzgerald, vice president for information services at Spaulding & Slye, a commercial real estate company in Boston.

Fitzgerald, whose company has Microsoft operating systems on all their desktops, notes that the software giant is "a master" at making customers feel uncertain about the future market potential of their competitor's projects.

"Microsoft is casting doubt and trying to make people feel hesitant about investing in education and getting deeply involved in the technology," she says.

Nevertheless, Spaulding & Slye, which manages 18 million square feet of commercial property, is planning to purchase products with embedded Java applets. The company is exploring the idea of replacing desktop systems in the buildings they manage with Java-enabled thin clients that could support accounting, energy management, and security applications. Fitzgerald says the payoff would come from lower maintenance costs, a flatter learning curve, and more streamlined software distribution.

Fitzgerald says she agrees with Netscape CIO Larry Geisel's assessment that an international Java standard is an important step toward the goal of write-once, run-anywhere software and will ultimately have a tremendous impact on lowering costs for both developing and supporting applications.

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