Web-based internal applications are possible today and are quickly
evolving to become an important part of many leading companies' IS
solutions. A competitive and open software and hardware marketplace is
driving companies like Netscape to make improvements in the technology
to enhance the range of what it can do and how easily web applications
can be managed and deployed. As the Internet continues to mature into
the mainstream platform for computing, internal web sites (as well as
external ones) are requiring better application development tools,
middleware solutions for connecting to legacy systems, and system
management tools.
Better development tools aim to add sophistication and complexity to
types of internal web applications that companies build. Specifically,
tools are on the horizon that will enhance HTML authoring, so that
users can easily create and publish rich, ``live'' multimedia
documents. Others will help the system managers of the internal web
site manage links, expiration dates, and ownership: these site and
document management tools will become increasingly critical as web
sites grow. Even now, some companies have more than 250,000 documents
on their internal web. Improved application development tools will make
it easier to build applications on top of web platforms that conduct
complex transactions against databases, legacy systems, and other
corporate information sources.
Increasingly powerful management tools will also enable an enterprise
to support far-reaching and innovative systems without sacrificing
control. Improved security and administration tools will ensure that
users are authorized to access the information they seek. Information
management tools will also provide integrated search technology to
effectively search across distributed servers.
The platform for creating more complex customized applications is addressed today by products such as Netscape Servers with the Netscape Server API and the Netscape Navigator with Netscape Client API. Netscape is developing innovative technology that will make it possible to build different applications, supporting ``live'' on-line content. This technology, based on the Java language, as well as the integration of third-party multimedia formats such as Adobe Acrobat and Macromedia Director, will make Netscape the platform for applications that provide intelligent and rich content.