As expected (CI No 2,272), ICL Plc introduced DAIS, a set of object-oriented tools and integration services for developing and deploying applications across distributed computing environments, at Object World last week. The software is derived from and supports ICL’s Openframework architecture, which is the firm’s systems integration methodology. It conforms to the International Standards Organisation’s Open Distributed Processing and the Object Management Group’s Common Object Request Broker Architecture specifications. According to ICL, the DAIS development is the culmination of more than 10 years of research and development by the ANSA Advanced Network Systems Architecture and the European Economic Community Esprit programmes. Other companies involved in ANSA such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Digital Equipment Corp, British Telecommunications Plc and GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd have also used the programme’s research for their own developments. For example, Hewlett has used parts of the ANSA technology in its recently announced ORB Plus product. In its simplest form, DAIS is designed to hide the system hardware, software and networking complexities of application development from programmers by using object technology and transparent transport mechanisms. This means that developers can shield the business logic of an application wihtout recoding, ICL says. Because DAIS automatically takes care of recompiling the integration parts of an application such as translating remote procedure calls to different system software and databases. It also enables applications to be deployed at a higher level of abstraction by using the IDL Interface Definition Language. This communication mechanism handles the trade-off between the client and server side of an application. DAIS will be marketed as part of ICL’s Openframework systems integration services, but other integrators will be able to license the technology in the future, says the company. The software is currently in beta test and is scheduled for release in January. Prices for DAIS will go from UKP50,000 to UKP250,000 up, depending on the number of systems involved.
