Clearly we've run through quite a number of useful kitchen appliances already, way beyond just the sink. Let's examine the more advanced services middleware might be providing. These advanced services are not yet common in middleware products, database-specific or more generic. Still, the functionality will be increasingly required by new enterprise applications. Single System Login -Missing from many database connectivity solutions is any separate authentication service.
Database administrators have to add a username and password to each server independently.
If you remember NetWare 3.x bindery support, and how it required the administrator to do everything on each server independently, you'll have the flavor of how this works in the middleware market. Too many usernames and passwords is not a good idea. More advanced middleware solutions let the user log in once and only once to the middleware's security, which in turn handles authentication from there on using that credential. That security may or may not be the same system used in a file and print environment. Look for support of card key solutions like SecureID's products.