Middleware 2004 : Springer : 9783540234289 : 3540234284 : 06 Oct 2004 : Middleware systems compriseprogrammingmodels, abstractions,protocols,and services to facilitate the design, the development, the integration, and the - ployment of distributed applications in heterogeneous computing environments. Conceptually, the term ?middleware? refers to a layer of software above the networking substrate and the operating system and below the (distributed) application. In practice these boundaries are not clear cut, with middleware functionality moving into and out of these layers. Remote communication, p- lish/subscribe, messaging, and (distributed) transaction constitute examples of common middleware abstractions and services. Middleware researchencompasses, builds on and extends a wide spectrum of concepts, techniques and ideas from a broad range of ?elds, including progr- ming languages, distributed systems, operating systems, networking, and data management. Following the success of the pa