Middleware: any client, any server

The Internet and enterprise intranets are all about middleware. Middleware is the center of the client/server architecture. All major vendors focus on it. After all, “occupy the center” is a good chess strategy. However, unlike chess, the Internet develops as a multi-player game, and occupying the center is a collaborative exercise in which the winners are determined by the Internet's ubiquity. CICS (Customer Information Control System) is an IBM transaction monitor that IBM has made into a suite of middleware products which neatly illustrate the condensation process whereby common application functionality “condenses” into middleware. Very briefly, CICS today addresses the problem of managing an Internet site being hit by thousands of HTML form requests