HIGHLIGHTS FROM:
DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING FOR THE EXTENDED ENTERPRISE: CORBA™, DCE, DCOM, Enterprise JavaBeans™, etc.

Extracted from 'Post Conference Documentation' , a report to Open Group members.   As this page is for non-members, most of the links will not work

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• The Plenary Session established beyond reasonable doubt that there can be no one middleware solution; each technology has sufficient strength to ensure its continuing survival.  Participants agreed that the middleware technologies have to co-exist and that the issues are ones of interoperability, security, and manageability.
• The Plenary Speakers covered the range of middleware technologies:
  • Dr Alfred Spector (IBM) illustrated how IBM is working to support various middleware technologies.
  • Wayne Haughey (AlliedSignal) explained AlliedSignal's architectural approach to Web-based software components and adoption of CORBA.  He showed how they are reducing time as well as cost of software development.
  • Miguel Garcia (CNN) described how an object-oriented approach matched CNN's needs to handle a wide variety of input to create news stories (business objects). He also illustrated how to distribute the results in a number of media such as mobile computers, television, the Web, etc.  He showed that CORBA-based solutions can be deployed effectively and are clearly ready for prime time.
  • Eliot Solomon (SIAC) explained the security industries' need for high performance, high availability, mature systems.  He justified the choice of DCE to provide a stable infrastructure and showed how this could be built upon in a layered approach to support a variety of applications including object-oriented systems.
  • James Curtin (DASCOM) spoke on behalf of the DCE Vendor Forum.  He described the strenght of vendor collaboration to deliver technical solutions based on DCE and illustrated this with specific examples.
  • Bill Roth (Sun) introduced the idea of components combining the power of software written in different places.  He talked about the development of component architectures for the server and described the wide range of EJB capabilities including their use in transactions.
  • John Jacobs (SAAB) discussed the challenges facing SAAB with its legacy systems and Y2K problems.  He explained the need for their retail and dealership system to have a GUI-based system and the reasons for the selection of Java.  The reasons included speed of development and the ability to use wrappers to get to the legacy systems.
  • John Tibbetts (Kinexis) addressed the issue of transactions management and workflow.  He explored the collaborative environment for transactions based on the notion that transactions would exhibit different characteristics in future systems.
  • Frank Hayes (Compaq) explored progress being made in making COM available on a wide range of platforms.  He explained that COM has a role beyond the desktop.
  • Mike Lambert (The Open Group) stressed the importance of testing and branding in the interoperability space and referred to the Interoperability Assurance Program currently under development.
  • Joseph De Feo (The Open Group) set the context for enterprise distributed computing within the IT DialTone™.

Our thanks to the speakers for the rich content.

• The interoperability between DCE and emerging technologies (Public Key, Smart Cards, CORBA, DCOM, and Java) was evidenced through presentations and demonstrations.
• Demonstrations from DASCOM, COMPAQ, Gradient, HP, IBM, and Inprise covered the integration of object technologies such as ORBs, Java, and DCOM with DCE.  In addition, CDSA demonstrations were provided by IBM and Motorola.  Exhibitors reported a higher number of quality enquiries than they would receive from a conventional trade show.   Our thanks to the vendors, who provided the applications for the demonstrations.
• The Open Group published its Discussion Paper (PDF) on Distributed Computing for the Enterprise.  Continued feedback is welcome and encouraged.
• The Interactive Sessions identified the advances needed in Distributed Computing with a ranked list of priorities covering security, management, interoperability, and other issues.
• The Java BOF elicited a spirited discussion that continued to the following day.  The conclusion was that integration between the emerging Java Applications Environment and other ket technologies was the top concern for members.
• Presentations from Cory Casanave and Tom Digre provided an interesting insight into the "Business Objects" school of component-based system development.  This is clearly an area for future sessions.
• The CDSA Product day provided the latest news on implementations of CDSA.
• DCE Today, newly published, made its debut at the Conference.  This book brings contributions from 21 organizations together with a CD-ROM containing example code and the full documentation for DCE 1.2.2.
• The DCE Program Group collected over 60 requirements on how to move DCE forward.  Specific champions agreed to ensure that selected requirements are followed through to productization by Q1 1999.
• The Software Licensing Specification,  sponsored by GUIDE International, was adopted by the Systems Management Program and Working Groups.
• Members voted the Post Meeting Documentation for San Diego at the top of  its improvement list. 
• The Miami Conference Intranet demonstrated the potential for future conferences and elicited much feedback. Our thanks to the DCE vendors (DASCOM, Gradient, HP and IBM) for providing the Intranet with a special thanks to Gradient for its coordination work.

We invite you to join us at our next Conference in Singapore, October 26-30th.   The plenary theme will be "Global Architectures for Enterprise Systems Integration". 

Speaker and Member Feedback:

• Professor Tarik Fouad Himdi, University of Saudi Arabia, came to Miami to get more inside information about DCE.  His discussions with DCE users, suppliers, and TOG staff have enabled him to build a business plan and to see a way of introducing DCE to the Saudi Government.
• Wayne Haughey, AlliedSignal, Inc., a plenary speaker, says he has spoken at Object World and other venues and that this Member Conference was the best organised he had seen.
• Dave King, Barclays, says that the Interoperability Assurance Program would be incredibly valuable in helping to manage multi-vendor interoperability.
• Bob Pritchard said that Gradient values participation in the Open Group program. In particular the Open Group demonstration program gives Gradient an excellent opportunity to speak to users and demonstrate how Gradient's products comply with open standards and help meet users' needs.
• John Tibbetts, President, Kinexis, Inc., a plenary speaker, was impressed by the innovative nature of the Member Conference and in particular the Conference Intranet. 

Go to the Miami Conference home page

If you have any queries or feedback, or you wish to know more about Miami or Singapore, then email us at meetings@opengroup.org.

CORBA is a trademark of the Object Management Group
JavaBeans is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
IT DialTone is a trademark of The Open Group