Current Web Techniques Are Inadequate
Sure, anyone with Microsoft FrontPage can put a human resources policy manual on the Web, but creating production web sites with existing web technology is simply too much work. Three broad problem areas in current web technology make it hard to build these new applications:
- Content management
Although web servers are good at presenting content, they are bad at managing it. This is partially due to their filesystem-based architecture, which often does not include the ability to build searchable, maintainable, and auditable information systems.
- Application development
A production setting requires tools that can scale both up and down, fit the needs of a specific user base, and are part of a complete developmental framework. Few, if any, current development techniques meet these criteria.
- Application integration and electronic data exchange
It’s too hard to integrate different systems. To make e-commerce and ERP a reality, a platform must provide a simple method to link different applications, whether they all reside in one site or are spread across multiple sites. Current web servers are only just beginning to address this issue.
Let’s look at these problems in detail.
Content Management
Web servers are great for making information available to a wide audience. Unfortunately, they do very little to help web site developers manage all this information. An ideal platform would help us develop sites that make it easy for users to find ...
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