Third Generation Distributed Computing Environments (3GDCEs) provide a collection of powerful services to support the e-business and m-business initiatives of today and tomorrow. Specifically, 3GDCEs comprise a wide range of middleware services; Web Services that allow components to be published, discovered, selected, and invoked over the Web; and platforms that package many services to support mobile computing and EC/EB applications. This book gives a systematic analysis of 3GDCEs and shows how these environments can be used to architect and integrate modern distributed applications to support e-business and m-business. Numerous case studies and examples are included. The book contents reflect updated versions of selected chapters of the "eBusiness and Distributed Systems Handbook", A. Umar, NGE Solutions, May 2003.