EJB

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Enterprise JavaBeans
EJB

   <specification, business, programming> (EJB) A {server}-side
   {component architecture} for writing reusable {business logic}
   and {portable} {enterprise} applications.  EJB is the basis of
   {Sun}'s {Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition} (J2EE).

   Enterprise JavaBean components are written entirely in {Java}
   and run on any EJB compliant server.  They are {operating
   system}, {platform}, and {middleware} independent, preventing
   vendor {lock-in}.

   EJB servers provide system-level services (the "plumbing")
   such as {transactions}, security, {threading}, and
   {persistence}.

   The EJB architecture is inherently transactional,
   {distributed}, {multi-tier}, {scalable}, secure, and {wire
   protocol} neutral - any {protocol} can be used: {IIOP},
   {JRMP}, {HTTP}, {DCOM} etc.  EJB 1.1 requires {RMI} for
   communication with components.  EJB 2.0 is expected to require
   support for RMI/IIOP.

   EJB applications can serve assorted clients: {browsers}, Java,
   {ActiveX}, {CORBA} etc.  EJB can be used to wrap {legacy
   systems}.

   EJB 1.1 was released in December 1999.  EJB 2.0 is in
   development.

   Sun claims broad industry adoption.  30 vendors are shipping
   server products implementing EJB.  Supporting vendors include
   {IBM}, {Fujitsu}, {Sybase}, {Borland}, {Oracle}, and
   {Symantec}.

   An alternative is Microsoft's MTS ({Microsoft Transaction
   Server}).

   (http://java.sun.com/products/ejb/).

   FAQ (http://java.sun.com/products/ejb/faq.html).

   (2000-04-20)