Middleware is defined as “software that connects two otherwise separate applications” (Webopedia 1). Middleware represents a variety of products that link two applications, such as a company database to a Web server. Sometimes known as plumbing, middleware products are not part of any application but they serve as the gap or bridge between two others. The following review of literature will focus on middleware, and the growing need for it among consumers, businesses, government, and academic institutions. After a discussion of middleware in general, the literature review will focus on the following most common categories of middleware: TP Monitors, Database Access Systems, RPC Systems, DCE Environments, and Object Request Brokers.
The growing reliance on the Internet and Web technologies comes in many models: business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and business-to-intermediary-to-consumer. So, too, businesses are relying more and more on the Intranet, an internal Internet that allows authorized employees to access the company database via the Internet. In addition to this, the Semantic Web is being developed which instead of acting as the Internet and HTML language for human-to-human interactions, the Semantic Web uses XML language for machine-to-machine interactions. In light of these developments, there is a greater need for middleware, or software that acts like a pipe to connect two separate applications. There are various reasons for using middleware, but one of the most significant is to improve traditional Internet speeds of transmission and to prevent server overload. As Burnell (8) notes regarding Farmland Foods’ reliance on middleware “The CE devices record 310,000 container transactions each day. Only about 38,000 transaction messages are exchanged directly with the host system, with the balance being processed by middleware. Our SAP system would have gone on overload if we sent it 310,000 trans...