Members of the The Open Group came together in Boston ...
- to work on the practical issues of managing the many millions invested in technology infrastructure. A major discussion point involved how heritage systemswhere so much of today's business information is storedcould be deployed as Internet technologies grow in value.
- As IT professionals, OPEN GROUP members have long recognized the need for a dependable global infrastructure as the basis for business applications critical to their respective industries.
- True electronic commerce will be built upon existing infrastructure, the ability to mine current databases and to deploy today's platforms, along with the application of Internet technologies.
- As a result, the Boston meeting saw a number of new programs initiated to outline and define the requirements, technologies and standards that, if collected together, could form the basis of a common level of security and reliability that is termed the IT DialTone.
- 91 organizations representing finance, manufacturing, telecommunications and government
- 180 attendees
- 35 working sessions covering areas such as security, DCE, desktop, and systems management.
- New programs were established to define the business and technical requirements of the IT DialTone: transaction processing, application services, core information exchange and location services.
Recognizing the Potential Advance of Electronic Commerce
"We don't have a bunch of nice standards out there that automate the infrastructure. Our role here is to essentially help define what that infrastructure will be so that it will be a lot simpler and easier and faster and cheaper to implement electronic commerce applications systems across the Web."
Anne Thomas, senior consultant with The Patricia Seybold Group, opened the Plenary Session of THE OPEN GROUP Boston Member Meeting. Internationally recognized, The Patricia Seybold Group provides research, consulting, and information services as well as strategic guidance and tactical advice to organizations seeking business advantages through the application of information technology. Leveraging off this knowledge base, Thomas offered a series of reminders that the capabilities for electronic commerce are now within the reach of the average individual. Thomas pointed out that a multitude of new web sites enabling electronic commerce are cropping up across the Internet. dy Peterson
Among the examples she offered, Thomas mentioned electronic banking systems in myriad countries that allow people to manipulate their accounts online. In Hong Kong, kiosks feature intelligent phones with full Web access. In homes across France, Web phones have become 'de rigueur' where people can shop and perform yellow and white page searches from their own living area.
She warned that there is a heavy cost to electronic commerce today. In one example, she pointed out that the popular online bookseller, Amazon.com, has a higher per book cost than the average bookseller with a shop on a city's main street.
This is because the infrastructure for maintaining Web servers supplied with the features required by electronic commerce are expensive. She stressed that a common set of standards could reduce this cost and invited the audience to listen closely during the day's sessions to the ideas and information presented. Only a concerted effort, such as the IT DialTone (a defining set of Internet technologies providing guaranteed Web performance), could make headway against the burgeoning costs of electronic commerce unchecked by commonly agreed standards.
A technical overview of 'Making Internet Commerce Work' was presented by Sukan Makmuri from Concorde Solutions, a Bank of America Company.
"Each vendor has a certain kind of solution or legacy-system approach that you cannot get rid of. So, even if you have really good intentions and good engineers, sometimes you have to live with your existing solution. When Netscape came out with their first browser, it was very easy for them to come up with the product. But now they have a legacy system, the older version of the Navigator. It makes life more difficult for them. I'm sure it will become more difficult for them to come up with better and newer versions."
Makmuri's presentation continually stressed the need for a flexible architecture so that future changes could be incorporated. When speaking of the 100 million lines of COBOL still being used today, Makmuri noted that heritage systems would always have their place in any infrastructure. Planning participants would be constantly confronted with build or buy decisions as they considered new alternatives and solutions in light of the technology they are using today.
During the afternoon's plenary session, Meg Lewis, vice president of SABRE Labs, presented the travel industry's view. To Lewis, the Internet is both an opportunity and a risk. To expand the market, travel consolidators such as SABRE must also offer shopping services and value-added planning information.
Providing services over the Web is still problematic when it comes to making money. Lewis stated that selling ads and other merchandise continued to be a major revenue source for providers.
Lewis reiterated the message of other plenary speakers by declaring that a radical revolution was taking place with regard to the onset of electronic commerce. No roadmap yet exists outlining exactly how to market to a potential customer base of exponential proportions. Just as Internet marketing methodology was yet to be determined, the infrastructure requirements also needed sustained effort. Lewis reminded attendees that both ATMs and VCRs took a number of years to catch on. Now, as they have become standardized, these devices are everywhere. It is the opportunity of the members of THE OPEN GROUP to work for the ubiquity of electronic commerce across a global infrastructure.
...on the need for more organized standards in electronic commerce...
Who do we
think we're up against? There's a lot of competition in
Internet marketing and it's very easy to think that our
competitors are Preview Travel or Microsoft, or someone like
that. We think actually that the competition for Internet
marketing is really the telephone. To give you a sense of
where we think the stakes are: You can go to the bookstore
and you can find HTML for Dummies, but nobody tells you how
to use the telephone. That's what we're up against. We're
trying to make it easier to use.
SABRE Labs
The SABRE Group
...on
the value of member conferences...
Caterpillar is
a global company. At this meeting I've had the opportunity to
meet with represenatives from other international companies
and to see what issues they face. For example, listening to
the international people debate the issues surrounding PKI
has been invaluable for me. I'm being provided with a variety
of perspectives that can help me at Caterpillar.
Cindy Peterson
Caterpillar, Inc.
"Vendors are concentrating on the low hanging fruit instead of the meat and potatoes needed to integrate the Internet into the core fabric of business operations... legacy integration is going to become paramount..."
International Data Corporation
Joseph De Feo, president and CEO of THE OPEN GROUP, predicted that business and market use of the Internet for electronic commerce would not grow to its full potential until the worldwide business community could trust the basic infrastructure of the Internet. Internet technologies must be linked to core investmentsthe business heritage systems existing today. This means providing consistent and guaranteed levels of security and reliability.
A worldwide communications infrastructure bombarded with a myriad of competing supplier solutions and standards was not workable. Such an infrastructure would eventually break down unless it was based on a core of reliable technologies and services.
The idea of enabling the fundamental capability of a worldwide communications infrastructure running thousands upon thousands of operationally critical applications is the core of the IT DialTone. He pledged THE OPEN GROUP to bring together vendors and suppliers to build the technical, legal and operational frameworks needed so that the infrastructure could be used with confidence.the ca
"There hasn't been anything said about the fact that the Internet and the Web were not developed by IBM, Digital, HP, Fujitsu, Hitachi, or any of the other traditional suppliers. It is an example of the most successful implementation of an open system that has ever been delivered to date. What it also demonstrates is that since the component technologies have developed at the speed that they have, and to the point that they havethe actual conceptualization of a global information infrastructure is not a dream."
De Feo reminded the audience that, in the beginning, the IT DialTone was really a metaphor to express the level of quality required in the building of an infrastructure. The IT DialTone means that all users of the infrastructure should enjoy a basic level of service that can be accessed from anywhere in the worldjust like the telephone system. A common set of technologies, contributed by standards organizations, vendors and customers, would make up the structure of the IT DialTone. Evolving middleware technology, such as DCE, would further the growth of the public infrastructure.
The nine owners of THE OPEN GROUP have voiced their unqualified support. Both the Customer Council and the Supplier Council have weighed in with immediate involvement in helping to map out the architecture of the IT DialTone. De Feo clearly stated that the IT DialTone was not just about the World Wide Web but included core services such as security, interoperability (i.e., DCE) and desktop.
In order to strengthen the collective voice of THE OPEN GROUP, a steamlined membership model will emerge that features multiple levels of participation. Plans are being laid to expand the general membership to 1,000 companies. New categories of membership are being created with a variety of option packages that even small companies will find attractive. THE OPEN GROUP is soon to announce specific plans to expand beyond the current nine sponsoring companies to a total of 25 enterprises within the next three years. De Feo mentioned that some existing industry vertical groups would be included in this new program.
When asked for a specific example of how a member could help in today's current climate, he replied:
"Let's take an example. How do we determine the value of security? I feel very strongly about security because I think it's one of the things that's inhibiting the exploitation of the Internet and the exploitation of the infrastructure that we could devise. Fortunately, we have a very strong security group.
"Would business people real commercial users, real users in the public sectorsay that, '16 implementations of public key is nonsense. That it doesn't work. That we will only tolerate two or three, and here are the reasons why...?' That's extraordinarily powerful. I can't tell you how powerful that is. That's what you can do to help us."
CEO Plenary Questions and Answers
Q Smart cards, like a credit card, do offer some physical security. Also, the Smart card does provide some added security in terms of digital certificates and identifying information about the person. Do you really see the physical security issue as being one of the things that's going to make or break the scene?
A The security issue is one more of perception than it is actual security issues. People are worried about sending their credit card numbers across the Internet, but the chances of someone "sniffing" your credit card as it goes across in email is really, really remote.
A Joseph De Feo, THE OPEN GROUP
There is a whole body of commercial practice, rules and
commercial tests that have occurred over the last 25 years in
respect to the use of credit cards and merchants. None of
this has actually been tested over networks yet. There's a
well-defined set of liability definitions around the
relationship between the issuer, the cardholder, the merchant
servicing institution and the merchants accepting that card.
There needs to be a sufficient level of integrity on these
networks to allow those parties in the traditional
point-of-sale environments to extend this liability coverage
to this new environment. From a bank perspective, the issue
really is how well-defined are our respective
responsibilities and liabilities in this electronic
environment.
Q Given the existence of CommerceNet, W3C, IETF and othersÐwhat should be the role of THE OPEN GROUP? Should all these groups be working in concert? Should THE OPEN GROUP confine itself to technical issues or take a broader perspective?
A Joseph De Feo, THE OPEN GROUP
We're in full discussion with these groups. The difference is
that we're looking to put together core, practical
specifications based totally on business needs. These
specifications will pull together "defacto"
standards, work from groups such as W3C and the IETF, as well
as vendor developments. The difference is we will be utterly
and completely focused on a defined collection of
technologies and standards based on our members business
requirements. The difference is we have a legal umbrella that
lets us bring together suppliers to provide technologies that
can then link these standards together. The difference is we
can provide a sound and legally tested branding program.
Q Can we set an agreement framework in place between the supply side and the buy side that allows resolution of multi-vendor non-interoperability? It's very difficult to do that from the supply side alone.
A Robert Neeley, Electronic Commerce
China, Ltd.
This also relates to the question of the politics of the
brand-granting and brand-removal process. Vendors worry that
if they support the process of granting a brand, will that
process have teeth (i.e., brand removal in the event of
subsequent demonstrated non-compliance in future product
revisions or enhancements)? Vendors, quite understandably
don't want that public humiliation. What seems to be missing
is a forum, probably put up by THE OPEN GROUP, where the buy
side perceives there to be sufficient economic advantage in
sharing that information in a way that does not embarrass
vendors and that leads to a "win-win" for
everybody. As far as I know there is no mechanism or process
yet for that information sharing to take place.
Debating the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)
Supporters Come to the Fore
"This is our first year as a member of THE OPEN GROUP. We joined due to our interest in DCE since we are using it for our middleware effort. We wanted to personally see the real story and influence changes to the DCE. Right now, DCE has a lot of critics and there is pressure to use something else. But, frankly, we don't see anything else out there that works now."
Cindy Peterson, Caterpillar, Inc.
As evidenced by member quotes in this summary, DCE and its future was uppermost in the minds of many of the attendees at the Boston meeting. The choice for enterprise IT customers in need of a secure, scalable, and robust network computing environment, it was the DCE technology that prompted companies around the world to become members of THE OPEN GROUP.
While other issues, such as security, attract avid attention, DCE is seen by users as the only possible middleware technology solution. People cannot look to a competitor because DCE is unique in its space. Following are DCE highlights and milestones announced at the Boston meeting:
- During his CEO Update, Joseph De Feo stated his belief that the DCE should be an underpinning of the IT DialTone due to its unique interoperability features. De Feo asked members to recommit themselves to moving DCE forward in regard to technology and capabilities.
- Martha Lynch, LDAP Project Manager with THE OPEN GROUP, took the opportunity at the DCE OPEN GROUP Update to announce that a future update to DCE would be able to use commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) LDAP servers. Expected general availability from THE OPEN GROUP is November 15, 1997. IBM, HP, and DIGITAL plan to implement DCE LDAP capabilities within the next six months.
- Future LDAP DCE enhancements will include: Administration (dcecp) support, the ability to remove DNS, X.500, CDS if not needed, and the use of LDAP v3 (for security and junctions).
- Major vendors; DASCOM, DIGITAL, Gradient, HP and IBM, renewed their commitment to DCE at the DCE Forum Panel Discussion. This committment was shown from an individual company perspective by showing their plans for upcoming DCE releases, and from a collective perspective as show by their commitment to meet jointly, through THE OPEN GROUP DCE Forum, to determine what areas they can and should be pursuing collaboratively.
- The DCE Business Meeting went "standing-room only" as participants from over 30 major companies voiced their ideas and concerns over the future of DCE. Ideas ranged from providing THE OPEN GROUP with marketing dollars to promote the DCE technology to demands for better support from the DCE vendors. A resolution was made to author a letter to corporate CEOs and CIOs making clear to vendors the need for consolidated DCE resources.
Program Group Updatedate
Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) Group
The DCE Program Group meeting was a very exciting, energetic and productive meeting, particularly in the instance of the DCE Forum. After a quarter of hard work in drafting a customer survey, collecting requirements, and working with the vendors separately on their response, customer and vendor groups were finally brought together. Vendors had the opportunity to show how they, individually, were meeting customer requirements for DCE in their own products. Customers had a chance to question the vendors on their collective commitment to DCE.
At the meeting, attendees received the DCE Impact Document containing customer requirements for the vendors. They were also provided with a Vendor Response Letter containing a commitment from DCE vendors to work with THE OPEN GROUP, on a consistent basis, to determine new areas of collaboration. The complete text of these two documents can be found at: http://www.opengroup.org/tech/dce/boston.
Action items resulting from the meeting included:
- Security requirements for the vertical securities market will be researched and combined with the requirements of the Security Program Group and DCE Program Group. A functional specification will be derived from this research and presented to vendors for feedback and evaluation.
- DCE vendors will meet with THE OPEN GROUP to determine areas for collaboration. Initial work has been accomplished in charting completed work, future requirements and timeframes across the vendor spectrum. This matrix will form the basis of all future collaboration.
- New working groups were proposed, including: Cooperative Marketing, ISV, DCE and the IT Dialtone.
Contact:
Sally Long
s.long@opengroup.org
Distributed Systems Management Program Group
Members of the Distributed Systems Program Group reviewed and further defined the model for managing the IT DialTone. This work is reflected in the whitepaper, "Managing the IT DialTone", first presented at the June member meeting in London.
Other significant activities covered in this meeting were:
- Agreement in a joint Security/Management program group session on the drafting of a schema for account management based on LDAP,
- Revision of the systems management "Manageability Guidelines" and Ref
- erence Model" documents to keep in step with development of the IT DialTone management deliverables
- An update on the DMTF Common Information Model (CIM) project, and actions to progress its adoption through arranging a tutorial on how to write a CIM schema
- A presentation from Boeing on their service-level approach to delivering systems management within their organization
- A proposal for generating a general systems management book, as a parallel to the existing book on security published by THE OPEN GROUP
Contact:
Martin Kirk
m.kirk@opengroup.org
Security Program Group
As member companies work towards the structuring of the IT DialTone, a feeling of urgency was felt by everyone regarding the issues of security and authentication. The Security Program Group meeting attracted people from over 50 companies, with presentations covering a range of topics. Accomplishments and new directives included:
- The firewall task group met to set standards that will enable buyers to purchase and install securely configured firewalls without the need for costly consultants. To further this discussion, THE OPEN GROUP will facilitate a user/vendor forum at the January meeting in Amsterdam. At least two vendors and a number of small-to-medium sized customer enterprises will be asked to present their views.
- A white paper on the value of labeling, aimed at both the CIO and CTO audience, will be produced by the UK Post Office/DERA.
- An initial draft statement of business requirements on authorization and privilege management has been released for review.
- As part of the effort in evolving DCE with public key authorization, THE OPEN GROUP has set up a series of key consultation meetings with end users and vendors, including IBM, Gradient, HP, and DIGITAL.
- An SSO Proposal for an LDAP-based approach through federating existing user account structures was presented.
Contact:
Dean Adams
d.adams@opengroup.org
Desktop Program Group
18 people from a variety of companies attended the all-day Wednesday session of the Desktop Program Group. The group sees the desktop as the integration point between the user and the application. The Desktop area is viewed as including a broad area of technologies that are evolving rapidly. As a result, the Boston meeting surveyed a number of technologies and their relationship to the IT DialTone:
- X Window System as a potential application and data delivery vehicle in the IT DialTone architecture with relevance for the following groups meeting for the first time this week: Core Information Exchange and Application Services.
- A new technology development project for an ultra thin protocol for remote application access (based upon the X Window System) was offered as a potential candidate for IT DialTone solutions. Code named the Kendall Project and developed by THE OPEN GROUP, this effort is currently being discussed with a number of potential investors.
- Network User Interface technologies in general, with specific presentations from Lotus and TriTeal. The industry is at a point where the desktop metaphor is changing from desktop centric to browser centric. These changes may cause fundamental changes to some User Interface paradigms.
- CDE and Motif providing the user interface for systems plugged into the IT DialTone.
Presentations were given by Redhat Systems on the impact of Linix Desktops in the enterprise, by W3C on HTTP performance enhancements, by Hummingbird Computers on new enterprise solutions using the latest release of X, and by the THE OPEN GROUP on X Window System security. These presentations highlighted some of the important problem areas companies are addressing in the short term in the desktop space.
Future work of the group includes working closely with both the Core Information Exchange and Application Services Program Groups in the area of desktop interfaces important to the IT DialTone.
Contact: Dave
Knorr
d.knorr@opengroup.org
Potential Programs for the IT DialTone
At the Boston meeting, members participapted in four new programs designed to support the structuring of the IT DialTone. These groups include: Transaction Processing, Application Services, Core Information Exchange and Location Services. Participants sought to put together business and technical requirements and to do opportunity analysis that would be presented at the next member conference in Amsterdam. These requirements will result in proposal and product development plans at upcoming meetings. From these plans, supplier implementations will follow.
Transaction Processing
Transaction processing systems are often heritage-based. The growing prevalence of Web technology must take into account the long-time use of heritage-based systems.
A sampling of requirements from the first meeting of the Transaction Processing group include:
- The ability to authenticate the origin of every transaction
- A means to support longer running transactions
- Support of transactional activity between infrequently connected devices (e.g., notebook or PDA devices)
- Coordination of the subordinate parts of the transaction
- Integration of TIP with CICS and other heritage systems
- Integration of Web systems with heritage TP systems
Contacts:
Ian Robertson
i.robertson@opengroup.org
Paul Rabin
p.rabin@opengroup.org
Application Services
Applications running within a corporation's intranet or across the Internet need a basic set of foundation mechanisms in order for these same applications to work cross platform. The group delivered a list of requirements relating to infrastructure and technology. Among those requirements were:
- A universal protocol to facilitate the download and installation of software updates across the Internet
- A versioning mechanism useable by all other services and applications
- The capability to assess non-object-based services from object-based services
- A single, consistent IDL specification with multi-language bindings
- A common, abstract syntax that can be mapped to: CORBA, DCOM and DCE to enable portability of software
- A mechanism for tracing error causes and conditions in software applications
Contacts: Ian
Robertson
i.robertson@opengroup.org
Paul Rabin
p.rabin@opengroup.org
Core Information Exchange
Beginning with a short introduction, attendees at the kick-off meeting of the Core Information Exchange meeting were presented with a technical overview representing current OPEN GROUP perceptions on the scope and content of this new program. All participants contributed to a structured brainstorming session, supplying infrastructure requirement needs.
Session objectives included:
- Reaching agreement on the scope of the Core Information Exchange Program
- Initiating the collection of Infrastructure Requirements for Core Information Exchange
- Devising a process for collecting requirements and receiving member feedback
- Determining the role of each attendee in taking the program forward
The technical overview presentation described the scope of the work as providing basic interconnection for communication and fundamental services for moving data. Also, the technology covered would span from the 'network' to the 'presentation' layer.
Attendees put forward a number of issues for consideration as requirements, among them:
- Security must be integral with the infrastructure
- No client modifications unless absolutely necessary
- A common document interchange format for text and graphics
- Interface standard for 'heritage' islands
- Single sign-on interface that looks to the user like one password and one user ID, yet, behind the scenes, these are brokered.
- Interoperability of objects as defined by CORBA and Java
During the last part of the session, attendees reviewed and built on session presentations and discussions.
Contacts :
Roy McKean
r.mckean@opengroup.org
Art Harvey
a.harvey@opengroup.org
Location Services
The ability to find people, services and applications across the global infrastructure demands both secure and standardized access to directory structures. Requirements put forth by the attendees included, among others, the following:
- Inclusion of X.509 format work in Phase 1 of IT DialTone
- Support for object-oriented object binding and lookup
- A common API for use by both the browser and non-Web access tools
- Authentication and access control of directory information should be correctly hidden (but conversely accessible) via all access paths
- Allowance for multiple access paths to the same information (i.e. consolidation of data stores)
- A standard API for LDAP
Contacts :
Roy McKean
r.mckean@opengroup.org
Norbert
Leser
n.lesser@opengroup.org
At the September meeting, five member delegates gave their primary reasons for attending the Boston meeting of THE OPEN GROUP. When asked about how the issues discussed at the meeting helped them plan the future of their organizations, here is how they responded.
Nick
Mansfield
Shell
Information Services B.V
"THE OPEN GROUP is a forum that brings IT professionals together with their peers. Customers and suppliers have the opportunity to engage in an ongoing dialogue regarding needs and requirements. If we can build a consensus around certain issues, our unity of purpose carries a great deal of influence. Let me give you an example.
"The deployment of security encryption technologies involves some complicated legal and regulatory aspects. From being involved in the deployment of this technology at Shell, I know that the investment cost is high. We can't encounter any 'regret cost' because this implies a severe business impact. Consequently, I need to understand where the technology is going. With this understanding, my peers and I can work to influence vendors and producers and, finally, regulators on an international basis. THE OPEN GROUP provides a stage for this type of work.
"Shell companies spend over $2 billion on IT services. We are also predominantly a Microsoft user. I believe that Microsoft should become actively involved as a member of THE OPEN GROUP. It would be beneficial for everyone, Microsoft included. If Microsoft were here, IT professionals like myself could talk with all the major vendors in a single forum.
"One thing that concerns me regarding THE OPEN GROUP is the lack of representation of the small-to-medium enterprise in our ongoing discussions. These small companies have purchasing power. They are a huge market, particularly in respect to electronic commerce. To disregard these smaller organizations now is to ignore the future. The ones that survive their growing pains will become the large and influential companies of the future. We need to find a mechanism that brings them into THE OPEN GROUP."
Reilly
Hayes
Merrill
Lynch
"Originally, Merrill Lynch joined THE OPEN GROUP because of its interest in DCE. This interest is ongoing. We see DCE as playing an increasingly important role in the technology infrastructure. It is involved in a large portion of transactions occurring today. For our part, we are very interested in seeing improvements to DCE directory services.
"At this particular meeting, I'm very curious to see how people will use smartcard technology for security. What kinds of problems do people expect to encounter? How will IT users handle these problems? There are a number of presentations at this meeting that will cover these questions. While Merrill Lynch has a well-established electronic presence, we are always looking to the future in order to maintain a high level of service to our customer base.
"I've also been closely monitoring THE OPEN GROUP's work on the IT DialTone. I think the framework being developed is a good one. I have high hopes for the DialTone."
William Won
The
Chase Manhattan Bank
"Being a member of THE OPEN GROUP provides those of us working on IT issues at The Chase Manhattan Bank an opportunity to interact and talk with users from other organizations.
"Using THE OPEN GROUP as a forum, we as members of the financial services industry can move forward with a common set of issues that are of concern to all of us.
"As at any financial institution, security is an important requirement for us. We are also closely watching the impact of the deployment of middleware technology. The financial services industry makes specific demands on each of these areas, since we are entrusted with safeguarding other peoples' money. In light of these requirements, we have a number of DCE pilots under evaluation. We are particularly interested in its present and future security and directory technologies and are taking part in those program groups that are concerned with these issues.
"Middleware, like DCE, has the ability to connect a wide set of platforms, including legacy platforms. No one is going to throw their legacy technology out the door and there is no previous model for securely interconnecting heterogeneous platforms other than DCE. But as technology moves forward, new sets of challenges arise.
For example, how do you enable browser access to business systems that originally did not have this capability?
That's why DCE must go forward. It must be relevant and it needs to adapt to new technologies such as the Internet, public key infrastructure, and LDAP, etc."
Cindy
Peterson
Caterpillar,
Inc.
"We've found that OPEN GROUP membership provides a number of benefits. For instance, there are other people at this meeting focusing on the same architectural issues that I confront. The meeting provides a benchmark for me of what other companies are doing. It's also valuable to be able to interact with vendors in a situation where I know I'm not going to be sold to. Here, vendors and customers are on more of an equal footing.
"Caterpillar is a global company. At this meeting I've had the opportunity to meet with represenatives from other international companies and to see what issues they face. For example, listening to the international people debate the issues surrounding PKI has been invaluable for me. I'm being provided with a variety of perspectives that can help me at Caterpillar."
Eliot
Solomon
Securities
Industry Automation Corporation
(a subsidiary of The New York Stock Exchange and of the
American Stock Exchange)
"Traditionally, we have always considered it our vendors' responsibility to represent us on standards organizations. But in regard to DCE and THE OPEN GROUP, the process could be improved. I have been intimately involved
in implementing DCE at SIAC for The New York Stock Exchange, and in presenting our accomplishmentsand disappointmentsin a number of forums. It was suggested that I represent SIAC and the Exchanges as an active member of THE OPEN GROUP. By participating, I hope I can be more effective in addressing the issues of our business.
"A Stock Exchange has extraordinarily stringent IT throughput, availability, and operability requirements. Frankly, we have found that those needs were not being well-served by the middleware industry. I now attend meetings, such as this one in Boston, to make sure our needs are represented.
"I hope to help DCE become better than just good enough.
"Over time, our focus as a member of THE OPEN GROUP has gone beyond DCE to also include broader aspects of security. Any technology deployed at The New York Stock Exchange or The American Stock Exchange must meet some rigorous scalability objectives. This is a major requirement for us as we serve our internal users and the broader securities industry. Security technology that won't scale up both in the areas of performance and multi-enterprise administration will not meet our standards. By participating as a member of THE OPEN GROUP, I hope to help the Exchanges and our other customers circumvent products that provide functionality but are not up to our operational requirements, and achieve something that really works for us."
Companies that Attended the Meeting
- Anderson Consulting (for JP Morgan)
- Apple Computers, Inc
- Barclays Bank plc
- Bellcore
- Boston University
- British Telecom
- Bundesamt Fur Informatik
- Capital One Financial Corporation
- Caterpillar, Inc.
- Chase Manhattan Bank
- Citibank
- Citicorp
- CommerceNet
- Commonwealth
of Massachusetts -
IT Division - Concorde
Solutions Inc.
(Bank of America) - Credit Lyonnais
- Dascom Incorporated
- Deloitte & Touche LLP
- Digital Equipment Corporation
- Digital Signature Trust Company
- Electronic Commerce China Limited
- Enterprise Solutions Limited
- EURUS GROUP
- GEC Plessey Semiconductors Inc.
- Gradient Technologies, Inc.
- Gresham Computing plc
- GTECH
- Hewlett Packard Company
- Hummingbird Communications Ltd.
- IBM Corporation
- Innenministerium NRW
- Intel Corporation
- IntelliSoft Corporation
- Invenio Technologies Corporation
- Isogon Corporation
- IT Industry Council
- Jacobs International
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- JP Morgan & Co. Inc.
- Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.
- Lawrence
Livermore National
Laboratory - Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Lotus Development
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Merrill Lynch And Co. Inc.
- Metro Link Incorporated
- Ministry of Defence DGICS (DERA)
- Motorola Inc.
- NASA Langley Research Center
- National Computerization Agency
- National Security Agency
- NATO
- Naval Underwater Warfare Center
- NCR Corporation
- Netscape Communications Corporation
- New York Stock Exchange (S.I.A.C.)
- Nippon
Telegraph & Telephone
Corporation - NIST
- NobleNet
- Northern Telecom Limited
- NTT Data Corporation
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Open Environment/Borland
- Open Information Technologies
- Open Market, Inc.
- Patricia Seybold Group
- PRC, Inc.
- Prime Minister's Office, Hungary
- Public Key International
- Red Hat Software, Inc.
- Shell Information Services
- Shiman Associates
- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems
- Silverstream Software
- Statskonsult
- Steptoe and Johnson
- Sun Microsystems
- Sweden Post
- T. Rowe Price Investment Technologies, Inc.
- Tandem Computers
- The Boeing Company
- The MITRE Corporation
- The Post Office
- The Prudential Insurance Co Of America
- The SABRE Group
- The Sakura Bank, Ltd
- The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
- Tivoli Systems, Inc.
- Transarc Corporation (IBM)
- TriTeal Corporation
- U.S. Department of Defense
- Union Bank Of Switzerland
- University of Michigan
- US Department of Defense/DISA
- USENIX/Relston Consultants
- Veritas Software Corporation
- WWW
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