Distributed Computing Environment is the only game in town for the integration of distributed networks of systems, says Don Haile, general manager of IBM Corp’s network software division. As we already know, IBM plans to support both Distributed Computing Environment and the Object Management Group’s Universal Networked Objects mechanism for object request broker interoperability (CI No 2,554). Its Distributed System Object Manager will support Universal Networked Objects as well as a Distributed Computing Environment protocol gateway. More frankly it admits that while the exchange of object-oriented information across untrusted networks is the base specification for Universal Networked Objects, Distributed Computing Environment is required for security and directory services. In simpler terms, Distributed Computing Environment will remain IBM’s premier transport mechanism for transporting objects across enterprises although it will make enough concessions to be compatible with Universal Networked Objects request brokers too, where required. IBM now has DCE 1.1 beta releases out on a range of systems – an OS/2 1.1 beta refresh release is due next quarter. The company expects to ship production versions of 1.1 for AIX this half, followed by OS/2, MVS and OS/400 versions. The OS/2 beta release of DCE 1.1 is out at some 20 sites.
