Review:Network Application Frameworks

Review:Network Application Frameworks 13

Posted by Hemos on Wednesday July 14, 1999 @10:39AM from the making-it-all-be-happy-together dept.

After a bit of an absence, Arjen Laarhoven has returned with a stellar review, this time of Eric Greenberg's new book Network Application Frameworks. Click below if you are interested in the design and implementation of networks in combination with the applications that run on them.

Network Application Frameworks
author	Eric Greenberg
pages	406
publisher	Addison-Wesley
rating	Useful i
reviewer	Arjen Laarhoven
ISBN
summary	9/10

Overview

Network Application Frameworks (NAF) is about networks and the applications that utilize them. This seems like kicking in an open door. Maybe. Many people tend to forget that networks and applications are symbiotic entities that perform a wide variety of tasks to help people and companies to do their work efficiently and effectively.

People who develop network-aware applications mostly take the infrastructure on which their applications run for granted. Little thought is given to the amount of traffic their applications generate, and when performance problems arise, they go complaining to the network people that network performance stinks and that they should do something about it.

NAF presents an amazing amount of information about this and many other problems that arise in today's networked world. More importantly, it also provides information about how these problems can be avoided or solved. The book is roughly divided into 3 parts:

An introduction to the the concept of Network Application Frameworks
The TCP/IP protocol suite
Specific information about the technology that is in wide use today, with solutions that Microsoft, Novell and IBM provide. Also, technology that isn't very widely used but has a very big impact on the industry is discussed. A separate chapter about The Open Group's DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) is an example of this.

The most striking feature of this book is that it provides a reasonable level of detail without losing sight of the big picture. A lot of specific technologies are discussed, like TCP/IP, DCE/DFS, Java, object technology, CORBA, ODBC, COM, ActiveX, NetWare, SNA, CICS and a host of other alphabet soup. Again, all these things are discussed without losing sight of interoperability, performance, security and ease of use (for both the users and the administrators).

I thought myself to be a pretty knowledgable person about programming and the use of the network in applications. NAF made it painfully obvious that I'm not. That is to say, like many other programmers, I worked in a blissful ignorance with respect to the big picture. For example, writing a program using the UNIX sockets API is one thing, but developing an application with taking performance, security and the use of services like LDAP, NDS and the Windows NT directory services is a whole other story.

While this book is an eye-opener for the tech folks like myself, it is also very informative reading for network designers and IT managers. By reading and thinking about the information that is provided in NAF, people with different backgrounds are ``educated'' in thinking about networks and applications from a number of different perspectives. Exactly that is what is missing all too often in computer and network departments of companies today. An awareness of the big picture. I think that by reading this book, people from different backgrounds (programmers, network designers and managers) can appreciate the problems and talk to each other about the solutions to these problems.

What's in it for me?

A whole lot. Depending on your background, I think you can learn a lot about networks, network topology, services, security and performance. Also, software technology like Java, CORBA, Directory Services (X.500, LDAP, NDS and the Windows NT Directory Services and Active Directory) is covered in considerable depth. A lot is said about legacy systems, with the most important example being the systems and network technologies from IBM (mainframes, SNA and CICS).

All these things are covered without losing sight of the fact that these different technologies can (and have to) be put together to provide a solution that works. Integration is the buzz-word these days, and not only integration of the obvious Windows and UNIX stuff, but also time-tested solutions and technology from Novell and IBM. With every discussion about a specific platform, be it Windows NT, NetWare or IBM's SNA, a lot of information is provided on why and how to integrate these different systems into a coherent whole.

What's good?

NAF is a very readable book, without avoiding technical discussions when necessary. Every chapter begins with a ``mind map'' of the topics that are discussed. Although this was new to me, I found it a very helpful thing to get a comprehensive overview of the topics and their relationships.

At the end of each chapter is a summary of the things that are discussed, and a list of references is given to books and articles that go into more depth about a particular topic.

Technical discussions are clarified by a lot of illustrations. I think I saw W. Richard Stevens saying in an interview "If I can't make a picture, I don't understand it." How true. For example, the topic of security (public key cryptography and the workings of Kerberos) is not exactly a simple one. The illustrations accompanying the text add a lot to gain an understanding of the more complex ideas.

Another good thing I want to point out are Eric's considerations about proprietary technology. For example, we all know Microsoft is very good at locking customers into a MS-only solution. In discussing proprietary technologies Eric points out the risks and benefits of going with one vendor for a particular solution and forces the reader to think for himself about these issues based on the information provided. He certainly is a proponent of open technologies but without forgetting about the other solutions that are available.

The last chapter provides a condensed overview of practically all the topics that are discussed in more depth in the previous chapters. This is very helpful if you encounter an abbreviation or concept and you have forgotten what it exactly meant.

What's bad?

IMHO, not much. You may not like relatively big proportion of Microsoft technology that is discussed (chapters 7, 8 and 9), but fact is that a lot of Windows stuff is in use, and that it's not going away, though how much we would like to.

The references to NT5 are kinda obsolete, but it's not Eric's fault that Microsoft changed the name of that OS (the book was published in November 1999).

With the current pace of change in the computer industry, some things are bound to have changed since the book was published. For example, I don't know if all the things about Windows 2000's Active Directory are actually implemented.

Conclusion

All in all, I think that NAF is a very valuable book to read. I certainly learned a lot about the integration of networks and applications.

Everyone who works in the enterprise software business, be it as an adiministrator or developer, can gain a lot of insight and specific information by reading this book and thinking about it.

Table of Contents (abbreviated)

Preface
1. What Is a Network Application Framework?
2. Core Network Application Framework Technologies
3. The TCP/IP Protocol Suite
4. IP Routing
5. Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
6. The Open Group Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)
7. Microsoft and WOSA
8. The NT4 Directory Service
9. NT5 Active Directory Services
10. Novell NetWare
11. IBM
12. Design Rule Summary
Index

Links to Web pages related to Network Application Frameworks

Seine Dynamics, Inc (The company of the author)
Addison-Wesley's page on NAF

You can buy this book at Amazon.

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