A stand-alone Java application is enterprise-ready if you can convince the enterprise it will support their needs. And as you point out, security and error handling as well as a lack of critical bugs will help.

Note that this is vastly different than "Enterprise Java", where the goal is to create systems that are modular, that interact with each other in defined ways (JMS and SOA). The goal is essentially to allow each module in your system to be a "black-box design". In the BDUF world, this means your ICDs (Interface Control Documents aka APIs) stay the same when you swap out a module's implementation.

Thanks for your response. Say I create a standalone java application in university and think it has business application.

If it fulfills a critical pain point within a business could they integrate that into their environment?

I guess my question is: do enterprise ready applications _have_ to be written in Enterprise Java?

Thanks

If your application doesn't need to connect to the business' other systems, then you can write it in whatever way you want. For any significant system, I'd recommend using an MVC or MVP pattern (see Martin Fowler's excellent articles - I prefer the "Passive View" for its testability).

If you're selling to large enterprises, the other thing you'll need to be is consistent. You can have short release cycles if you want, but the company's IT department may not upgrade each time you release. You'll need a very defined way of jumping several versions (e.g. Many companies completely skipped Windows Vista, staying with Windows XP longer than Microsoft would have liked and then upgrading to Windows 7).

predictability, libraries, developers, numbers of specialist, support, books, the language(not perfect, but stable and fast), frameworks.

Thanks. Do you know any resources (sites or books) where I can learn more about this?