Network Application Frameworks: Design & Architecture (ISBN 0201309505)

Amazon.com Review:
This is an ambitious piece of technical writing that deserves a place on every network manager's shelf. Network Application Frameworks covers all of the key connectivity technologies of today and tomorrow from a practical and informative angle. Author Eric Greenberg does a fine job of presenting complex software technologies with an ever-present focus on real-world deployment. The book begins with foundational knowledge of distributed object technology, directory, security, and transaction services. Next, it dives into the details of CORBA, X.500, LDAPv3, and the complete TCP/IP protocol suite. The author discusses Internet Protocol (IP) routing protocols (a key topic for internal networks and gateway connectivity) and IPv6 (potentially the next generation of IP that may have significant impact on today's networks). The author next presents the often murky world of Microsoft's Windows Open System Architecture (WOSA) strategy, discussing all the related networking transport standards, application-programming interfaces, and component specifications. The book provides good coverage of Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) and also offers chapters on Windows NT 4 Directory Services and the upcoming NT 5 Active Directory Services. This text wraps up with important chapters on Novell NetWare and the past, present, and future of IBM's various networking technologies. It finishes with a lengthy table of all of the technologies, listed with the author's observation of their benefits, impact, and future. While Network Application Frameworks requires good technical knowledge of the challenges of networking, it is itself a fountain of knowledge for anyone trying to make sense of the perplexing landscape of networking technologies. --Stephen W. Plain

Invaluable for MCSE's and CCIE's, Network Designers, IS/IT:
This book is an invaluable comprehensive guide to network design, distributed computing, and overall client/server architecture including security. Highly readable, it clearly explains important network design and distributed computing technologies-- how they work, what their key design constraints are, and how they compare. It is suitable for both beginners and advanced professionals looking for answers to difficult questions. If there's one book Microsoft or Cisco certified professionals, network designers, Information System (IS/IT) professionals, or application architects should buy this year, in my opinion this one is it.

Very valuable read.:
Excellent book! 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 administrator or developer, can gain a lot of insight and specific information by reading this book and thinking about it. END

NAF:DA, excellent, lucid roundup of technologies that matter:
Greenberg has put together an extremely readable account of the technologies that matter in the developing of applications for the emerging Networked Age. (You think "emerging" is wrong, and that we're already "there"? Just wait -- you ain't seen nothing yet. China, India, all of Africa have yet to join!) It's not necessarily the kind of book you'll wish to read from cover to cover, but as an "e-business technical architect" at a Big-5 I have found NAF:DA to be an excellent resource into which to dip from time to time. Very highly recommended.

MCSE's and CCIE's can greatly benefit from this book:
I highly recommend this book to Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSE's), Cisco CCIE's, and Network/IT professionals in general, new and old. Network Application Frameworks is a welcome change. With every page, Greenberg caters to the reader's every need, providing a comprehensive collection of information in a concise easy-to-read format and with an entertaining style. If you need to understand Microsoft technologies, networking, and distributed systems in general, this book is as good as it gets.

A must read for IT Infrastructure Strategists and Designers:
As industry analysts articulate the "vision" of the intranet becoming a unified platform for delivery of information services. Eric Greenberg has made it possible to develop a strategic architecture or roadmap to making it a reality. Peter G. Daniels R & D, Network Strategic Planning