XML: Solving Business Problems

by George Reese

The evaluation of cutting-edge technologies can be a difficult task in the face of the hype that naturally accompanies their evolution. XML is no different from other technologies in this respect. If you believe the hype, XML obviates the need for Java, brings Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) into the Internet era, replaces the relational database, and revolutionizes the development of Web sites. Some of the things you have heard are true; others are definitely false. Listening to the hype and being misled into taking one of the false paths can have very expensive consequences. Imagine, for example, the costs of throwing out your established relational databases in favor of XML, only to find that XML does not even play in that problem domain.