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

Severl additional architectural models eixst in the marketplace, but the preceding examples represent a good sample of what is available. Certainly, the Open Cooperative Computing Architecture (OCCA) from NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio, is a significant addition to the lineup with its client/server, open standards foundation. The Integrated Information Environment (IIE), from Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, Pa., with an emphasis on OSI, TCP/IP and SNA support, is also a strong entry in the open architecture sweepstakes.

Unisys was one of the earliest supporters of full OSI protocol implementation. Bull HN Systems, Inc., Billerica, Mass., presents a modular client/server approach with its Distributed Computing Model (DCM). Bull borrows from OSF's DCE for distributed file and RPC activities. DCM is also geared to support proprietary, as well as Unix, components within these client/server configurations.

Just as corporate users have employed their purchasing power to help drive open systems architectures from vendors, the U.S. government has pushed for standards.

"The federal government is one of the prime motivators behind standards implementation," stated Gary Donnelly, of Donnelly Associates, Inc., an open systems and Unix-based consulting firm in Reston, Va. "Their large expenditures on system technology give a strong impetus to standards in areas such as networking, database access, programming language, operating system interface and configuration management."

STANDARDS QUANDRY

It is this morass of groups and products, however, that leads to confusion among end users. Marketeers turmpet their wares as conforming to this or that standard, often with no rationalization or proof of compliance, while assorted alliances and consortiums tout sometimes conflicting standards.

As a buying power; the government helps to translated legislated software standards into available software products. The list of prominent legislated software standards organizations includes: the American National Standards Institute (Ansi), New York City; the Consultative Committee on International Telephone and Telegraph (CCITT), Geneva, Switzerland; the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New York City; the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland; the Natonal Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md.; and the Open Software Foundation (OSF).

Well-known products emanating from these organizations include Posix, local-area network conventions, most of the computer language

          OSI AND TCP/IP APPLICATIONS
                    OSI       TCP/IP
   Function      Application      Application
Electronic Mail    X.400      Simple Mail Transfer
                              Protocol (SMTP)
File Transfer      Ftam       File Transfer
                              Protocol (FTP)
Remote Terminal     VT         Telnet
Access
Network           CMIP and    Simple Network
Management        CMIS        Management Protocol
                              (SNMP)
SOURCE: COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH CORPORATION