Java is now an established part of the computing industry, and everyone knows that it's intimately connected to the Internet. But now the Internet is becoming part of the very fabric of industry and society, and companies are seriously embarking upon mission-critical Internet projects whose outcome will affect their competitive strength, if not their very survival. So the obvious question is, is Java ready for this challenge? Is it ready to be used for something more than animated graphics on a Web page? We've gathered several authors to address the question in this issue of the Cutter IT Journal.