Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Isis Distributed Computing Systems Inc and Dublin-based Iona Technologies Ltd began deliveries of what they claim is the industry’s first fault-tolerant Object Request Broker, as Orbix + Isis last week. The much-flagged development combines Iona’s Orbix request broker with Isis’s software development kit, run-time and message distribution service (CI No 2,402). They claim the combination – which cost over $1m to develop – will deliver fault-tolerant distributed object applications, or Non-Stop Common Object Request Broker Architecture as they put it, plus load balancing and parallel execution. Applications developed using the kit have their key processes, that is objects, replicated on each node. If one node goes down, other processes running on remaining nodes will keep applications afloat. Requests are re-routed to available servers. Isis manages the multiple copies using its own messaging protocol. The company said it could as easily run over Distributed Computing Environment, but said it hasn’t decided whether this protocol will make it in the market yet. Essentially, the Orbix model has been extended to accommodate the notion of object groups, which implement Isis’s concept of process groups on to Orbix application server objects. Orbix + Isis provides Interface Definition Language-to-C++ translation so that client and server applications can be written to take advantage of the object groups. Developers create server objects using Orbix conventions and extend them to create the object groups. At Common Object Request Broker Architecture 1.2 now, the product will be updated for version 2.0 compliance, and yes, said Isis, It’s a way to keep your applications up and running in environments with multiple NT implementations. It is up under Unix initially at $12,000, and a Windows NT version will follow. Both firms will sell the package. Isis, which grew out of a Cornell University distributed computing initiative, is owned by Stratus Computer Inc (CI No 2,314). It puts its software up against anything the hardware vendors offer for high-availability across distributed systems, arguing that with the Isis kit there is none of the downtime associated with having to bring a system up on another node. It now employs 85 people, up from 20 when Stratus bought in. It shares its office space with Iona’s recently-created East Coast operation. The company is coy about three additional implementations of its replication technology promised by the end of the year, but claims to be working with Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp and the database vendors. Its success also reflects well on its Stratus parent, which is poised to search out other markets and business models against the day it begins to suffer a long-term decline in its core fault-tolerant hardware business.
