Software Quarterly

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The Open Blueprint describes a set of services needed to enable applications in an open, distributed, heterogeneous environment. These services don't need to exist on every platform in the network, but they should be accessible from anywhere in the network.


Figure 1. The Open Blueprint

It's the structure of the Open Blueprint that enables the application and the user to view the network as if it were a single system, with all resources on every platform in the network available and accessible. Figure 1 describes the Open Blueprint and its services. However, the Open Blueprint isn't as monolithic and static as this view would indicate. Figure 2 shows a "network of systems" in which each system could be thought of as structured according to the Open Blueprint.

Figure 2. Network of Systems

The Open Blueprint promotes the integration of multivendor systems and helps simplify the more cumbersome aspects of client/ server computing, such as multiple logons, multiple passwords, and unique application directories for locating resources. These key items provide a single-system view of the network.

The Open Blueprint has several sets of resource-management services, including:

Network Services

The Open Blueprint will evolve as new functions are defined and new technologies become available. Its evolution will depend to a great deal on object technology.

Objects are expected to become more prevalent in applications and in system and network components. The coexistence of object and procedural elements is accommodated in the Open Blueprint. Its basic object-management services will be extended to satisfy both transitional, mixed environments and full, object-oriented environments. In addition, over time, many parts of the Open Blueprint itself will use object technology.

The following publications provide more information on the Open Blueprint:





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