DCE updates discussed; it has provided a road map but even users ask 'Who'll go first?' - the Open Software Foundation's Distributed Computing Environment

Software Magazine, June, 1995 by George Lawton

It has provided a road map but even users ask `Who'll go first?'

The Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) promoted by the Open Software Foundation has been taking form for more than five years now. At an OSF DCE users group held in San Jose recently, enthusiastic IS managers discussed their experiences and trials. Many have been with DCE since it first appeared as a potential road map for distributed computing, through to its initial implementation. But, as has been OSF's history, DCE is a focal point for controversy.

DCE includes the kind of features many IS managers desire. Still, at the heart of DCE is a remote procedure call developed several years ago. Critics say DCE technology is old before its time, or overkill, or inadequate in terms of object computing support. More than one critic maintains that DCE has become the province of the IS elite, and that divisional workgroup developers will find other, simpler means to the distributed end. In the background looms newer, object-based technology.

DCE's Competition?

Said one DCE community member, "The press expected ISVs to embrace DCE but that wasn't going to happen. There are five or six industries in which it's really popular. Fortune 1000 companies have been the ones most interested in DCE."

The road to distributed computing seems to lead through object technology. Although Corba and DCE can be viewed as complementary, some developers may wait for Corba 2.0, and forgo DCE. In fact, Corba is increasingly cited as a competitive effort to unify enterprise computing by providing a common look and feel for applications across platforms. Corba's focus is on the relationship between an application and an object request broker. It does not necessarily. enable full-featured, enterprise-wide distributed computing. And it is new - some would say untested - technology.

"Compared to what DCE offers in terms of openness, standardization and interoperability, OMG has a way to go with Corba," said David Chappell, a consultant with Chappell & Associates, in Minneapolis.

Still, John Rymer, editor of the Seybold Group's Distributed Computing Monitor, Boston, has noted, "DCE deployment is going very slow. We find that DCE is primarily being promoted by advanced technology groups and corporate architecture gurus. It is not widely used in the trenches yet. Most project teams are using [Sun's] ONC."

DCE is complicated, difficult to configure and design, and has a very complex set of APIs, according to Rymer. ONC is described as a remote procedure call system with associated file and naming services.

Road Maps

Rymer said some features, such as a single login and password for the enterprise, are trickier to implement with ONC. But, many of the people that consider DCE for logon security don't really need the encryption and other features DCE brings, including the inflated cost.

Rymer noted, "I think the jury is still out as to whether [DCE] is going to be as big a force as people suspect. It may be a matter of different alternatives to DCE. A lot of people building distributed applications are using distributed database technology [instead of DCE or ONC]. I think a number of us expected DCE was a `can't lose' approach because IBM, HP and the others were behind it, but the majority of users are just not buying."

DCE was first proposed in 1989, when firms began to realize that client/server was beginning to beat out mainframe-based computing for many applications. Of course, that assessment assumed all the new equipment could interoperate. Many of the largest vendors and customers came together with a list of the technologies they needed to make computer systems interoperate. They realized they needed technologies for integrating file systems, synchronizing clocks, naming files, and providing a coherent security system.

IBM, HP and DEC, especially, have made DCE an important part of their strategic road maps, even as they began developing advanced distributed object computing solutions.

OSF took pieces of software from different companies to create a single set of source code for DCE. Hewlett-Packard supplied the security component. The distributed file system came from Transarc. The remote procedure call was taken from the former Apollo Computer, subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard.

By 1991, OSF had its first set of DCE source code ready for delivery. A number of vendors created products based on this initial spec. Security issues may have hampered deployment of first-generation of DCE technology for mission-critical applications.

User Notes

Is DCE ready for prime time? Yes, said Charles Blauner, vice president of corporate technology at JP Morgan in New York City: "It is our intention to start putting out production applications starting with the DCE 1.1 environment," he said.

"DCE 1.03 had the robustness and reliability that we needed. We waited for 1.1 in order to gain [functions such as] auditing. We will have a pretty hefty rollout of DCE 1.1 before DCE 1.2 hits the streets," he said.