Road map critical to guide open system; Owens-Corning searched for more openness, became test-site for HP's OSE service - Open Software Environment - Owens-Corning Fiberglass

Software Magazine, Jan, 1992 by Jerry Cashin

The idea of moving towards open systems sounds good, but as a practical matterm how does as IS organization do it?

"The trick is that you have to get started," said Melanie Kurdys, director of corporate systems development at Ownes-Corning Fiberglass in Toledo, Ohio. "It's hard figuring out the first step, but once you get it laid out, you can establish a path from there."

The path toward open systems for the manufacturer of roofing and insulation began in 1990, when the company tried to better define principles for developing information systems. With 54 plants worldwide, Owens-Corning sought to reduce costs and achieve as much technology transparency as possible in a mixed environment of IBM mainframes, HP 3000s and 9000s from Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), Cupertino, Calif.; and PCs.

The company wanted to preserve as much of its investments in existing systems as possible while making the transition to an open solution. From its research, Owens-Corning had comes across the Holo methodology from Phoenix-based Miles Burke Associates. The object-oriented software generation methodology was based on IBM's IMS for MVS under CICS. But, Owens-Corning was using IDMS from Computer Associates, Garden City, N.Y.

"We knew we had to change the database anyway, and if we were going to change, we wanted something more open," Kurdys explained. Miles Burke Associates accommodated the company be agreeing to port Holo to a different platform.

It was HP, according to Kurdys, that helped Owens-Corning with the first step toward open systems. The plan was to implement corporatewide, open distributed computing based on object-oriented software development, client/server processing and early use of the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) from the Open Software Foundation, Cambridge, Mass.

The question then became what products on the market would allow this transition. In pursuit of the answer, Owens-Corning became a test site for a new service offering from HP called the Open Software Environment (OSE).

The Open Software Environment, according to HP, is designed to help customers gear up more quickly for open systems implementation, with the goal of greater competitiveness based on improved flexibility and time-to-market.

The genesis of the service, which originated at Hewlett-Packard's German offices, came from customers who asked the company for help and expertise in moving toward open systems, said Willem P. Roelandts, HP's vice president and general manager of the Network Systems Group in Cupertin. "Customers are moving to open systems and the biggest problem they have is how to get there," he said. "There is more than one standard for any particular job; some standards work and others do not. Customers are confused and little information is available except from vendors."

Roelandts argued that HP's service is distinct because it is run as a profit center and does not rely on the sale of its hadrware or software. "OSE is a service delivered by our professional service organization. This is an additional 'product' for them," he said.

For a typical fee of $20,000, HP's OSE consultants assess an organization's computing environment and map out an open architecture specific to the company. "Modern MIS managers look for a list of standards and guidelines first. They do not want to be forced to choose specific products," he said. OSE consultants then advise clients on which standards the organization should move toward, and help identify products consistent with the standards.

"When we refer products, we give people choices," Roelandts said. For example, HP recommends databases from such companies as Informix Software, Inc., Menlo Park, Calif.; Ingres/Ask, Alameda, Calif.; Oracle Corp., Redwood City, Calif.; and Sybase, Emeryville, Calif.

Roelandts, however, is aware of the competition. "DEC [Maynard, Mass.] and IBM have a different approach. They tell customers they have to move to their own proprietary environments," he said. "We only recommend de facto and de jure standards."

The OSE effort was annouced in March 1991 at the Hannover Fair in Germany. Hewlett-Packard plans to offer the service in the Asia-Pacific region in early 1992.

Owens-Corning's Kurdys said HP's OSE gave the company the framework it needed to get their open systems effort moving. The fact that Miles Burke Associates agreed to support another platform was also critical. "The biggest benefit will be a more flexible technology implementation," Kurdys said.

The Holo method calls for developers to build an application using combinations of object-based functions. These functions contain business rules as well as programming logic, which is intented to hide technology such as I/O for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and relational DBMSs from the application developer.

Owens-Corning is following a three-phase plan for migration to DCE. In phase one, the company built an open, client/server prototype that was defined during the initial workshop with HP. This involved a port to HP-UX and adaptation to Named Pipes, a program-to-program protocol within Microsoft's LAN Manager, and to NCS, the HP/Apollo core technology adopted by the Open Software Foundation in DCE.