What is middleware? What is MOM?

Middleware is a broad term used to describe software whose purpose is to provide

some level of abstraction from other software applications or databases, allowing the

communication between processes to be handled separately from the development of

the processes themselves. This category is very broad and it is often hard to

distinguish where the lines between middleware and "traditional" software

applications begin and end due to functional overlap and the common practice of

embedding a variety of middleware combinations within a productivity application.

Within the middleware space there are a number of categories, and even those

definitions are subjective. In a recent report, the research group IDC identified no less

than 7 categories of middleware, including Data Access, Transaction, Businessware,

Message-Oriented, Legacyware, Object, and Remote Procedure Call middleware.

When taken as a whole, plus adding in some level of systems integration expertise,

you have what is commonly referred to as Enterprise Application Integration.

By most definitions, Sun ONE Message Queue software cleanly falls into the

Message-Oriented middleware category, also referred to as MOM. MOM is a

relatively low level of abstraction within the middleware ranks, often running

underneath complementary layers such as database and application adapters, event

processing, and business process automation.

By design, Sun ONE Message Queue software attempts to focus on satisfying the

primary characteristics of the MOM space, those being the actual message transfer

functions, rather than adding functionality that overlaps with other layers of

middleware. These MOM characteristics include functions such as message routing,

persistence, guaranteed delivery, and transaction support.

Guest at 2007-7-1 13:50:21 >