The Distributed Computing Environment was the main focus of the event (don’t ask ‘well what else is there?’), which is perhaps its one bona fide success story. The US Army expects to spend $2,000m on Distributed Computing Environment-related purchases we’re told, much of it going in battlefield systems; Barclays Bank Plc is using the Distributed Environment to link the corporate systems across its divisions and subsidiaries; and Schlumberger Ltd is using it in a project to link its oil-field analysis systems. There were the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford University, Chemical Bank Corp, Bell Communications Research Inc, General Motors Corp (secure communications between on-site and off-site computer aided design and manufacturing systems and a new system for dealers) and Ford before them. The improved security that came with DCE 1.1 was a major reason for going the Distributed Computing Environment, route according to many of the users. But they also cited its efficiency. Contrary to popular belief you don’t need fat clients, Michigan’s Ted Hanss told us. Meantime, the Software Foundation will offer free Distributed Computing Environment source code to universities and non-profit research organisations in an attempt to increase the adoption of its distributed technology. The Software Foundation has also introduced a certification programme for Distributed Computing Environment implementations. Those branded initially are DCE 1.0.3 for OpenVMS 1.3 on Alpha and VAX – not, you will notice Digital Equipment Corp’s OSF/1-based Digital Unix; the CDE 1.0.3-based HPDCE/9000 1.2 under HP-UX 9.0; Hitachi Ltd’s 1.0.3 DCE/Base-M 1.0 implementation under HI-OSF/1-M 1.2; and IBM Corp’s DCE 1.3 implementation of DCE 1.0.3 on AIX 3.2.5.
