To address new demands in business computing, software vendors are introducing application server toolkits. The concept is to create clusters of low-cost computers that support one specific business area, then connect these clusters to the network. By using the network as the computer, one piece of software can support desktop computing, electronic commerce, and communication with mainframe software. Building Application Servers is a practical guide to application server technology, explaining the theory of network computing and providing practical techniques that use these tools to produce effective business solutions. It contains practical examples and program code that use UML, Java, RMI, and JDBC to illustrate design problems and programming techniques. The development framework offered in this book spans a variety of platforms, vendors, and architectures. Developers who are familiar with traditional client/server technology but want to learn how to move to distributed client/server computing will find this book useful.