Distributed Object Promotion Group Officially Established

Tokyo, October 2, 1997 -- The Distributed Object Promotion Group was officially established today at its first general meeting. After their intent to establish the Group was announced in July of this year, the member companies organized the preparation committee to discuss its activity plan and to recruit new members. The first general meeting of the Group was held today where the rules and regulations of the group were approved and the activity plan for its working groups was announced. The meeting was attended by Mr. Richard M. Soley, Chairman and CEO, Object Management Group, Inc.

The main objective of the Group is to promote distributed object technology and to verify the inter-connectivity of the member companies' products in this area.

The Group is comprised of computer and software vendors offering distributed object-oriented products. The member companies at the time of establishment in alphabetical order are; BEA Systems Japan, Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi, Ltd., IBM Japan, Ltd., NEC Corporation, Nihon Sun Microsystems K.K., Nihon Unisys, Ltd., Osaka Gas Information System Research Institute Co., Ltd., Oracle Corporation Japan, Toshiba Corporation, Toyo Information Systems Co., Ltd.

For the last few years, with the implementation of network infrastructures such as the Internet and intranets, corporate information systems have grown in size, covering wide geographical areas. Distributed systems, comprised of heterogeneous platforms such as mainframes and servers, have become the main stream of information systems. With these network based systems, high levels of inter-system operability, including application inter-operability and portability as well as improved productivity, are required. Distributed object technology is expected to meet these requirements.

For the implementation and deployment of distributed object technology, the specification for inter-connection between heterogeneous systems, known as CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), are set by the OMG (Object Management Group). Products conforming to these specifications are offered by vendors in Japan and worldwide. In a wide range of areas, including the area of EC (Electronic Commerce) and CALS (Commerce At Light Speed), many systems with CORBA compliant products as their common system infrastructure have been verified and deployed.

The member companies of the Group share the view that distributed technology will be a key future technology for mission-critical systems. The Group, therefore, aims to attain greater penetration of distributed technology as a basis for corporate information systems and to contribute to the development of Japanese information systems by verifying the inter-connectivity among CORBA-compliant products and by ensuring the portability of application programs.

The Group will initially provide verification services to ensure inter-connectivity for IIOP (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol) and inter-operability for CORBA transaction service between heterogeneous systems. The scope of services offered will be extended in the future.

The Group plans to supply software vendors and users with information on verification results through technical seminars and exhibitions and also to contribute to OMG activities. "The Distributed Object Technology Forum," which will be held in Yokohama between December 3rd and 5th, will be the first seminar to be planned by this Group. For this three day, twelve session forum, the members of this Group, together with OMG, will provide lecturers and participants for technical sessions, case studies and panel discussions.

For more details of the Members, see Attachment