"ETA: one of the groups that was motivated was MS: use SQL Server + SP ; then COM in the Logic layer and then ASP in the UI." I remember SQL Server and its Sto

"ETA: one of the groups that was motivated was MS: use SQL Server + SP ; then COM in the Logic layer and then ASP in the UI." I remember SQL Server and its Stored Procedures having a brief period of popularity because Visual Basic had been popular, in no small part to non-university-trained people starting their careers by graduating from MS Excel VBA macros to VB UIs in enterprise client-server apps, with MSSQL SP providing the logic layer. As the Dot-com boom took off, ASP made it possible to leverage that experience outside of the enterprise building internet applications, which was were the money and excitement was. I remember MS pushing COM, but never getting very far with it as it quickly lost ground to Java. Java was exploding in popularity and was a rich and fertile valley where the "kingdom of the application layer" could be built re-using paving stones from the "3-tier and n-tier" era that somewhat preceded it but was somewhat coincident with it.