[2675] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
PR: IBM, Oracle, Sun and Netscape Collaborate on Standards for Network Computing
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Timothy F Sipples)
Sat Mar 22 12:38:15 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 22 Mar 1997 17:26:17 GMT
From: tsipple@us.ibm.com (Timothy F Sipples)
Reply-To: tsipple@us.ibm.com (Timothy F Sipples)
Reply-to: tsipple@us.ibm.com (Timothy F Sipples)
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Interoperability to offer customers transparent software integration across
platforms
NEW YORK, March 11, 1997 . . . IBM*, Oracle*, Sun* and Netscape* today
joined forces to work together on open standards for network computing,
demonstrating cooperation among industry leaders. The widespread adoption of
these standards will allow corporate customers to conduct electronic business
without having to worry about the underlying technologies. Diverse Web-based
technologies can be easily integrated into enterprise applications, offering
investment protection, new flexibility, and opportunities for significant
cost savings.
As corporations extend their businesses from the enterprise to the
Internet, they require industrial-strength reliability, functionality and
interoperability -- a software infrastructure that is the equivalent of a
dial-tone for the web. This unprecedented collaboration, which is open to
broad industry participation, will join common interfaces, protocols, and
procedures that will allow diverse software components to connect from
clients to servers, through corporate intranets and extranets and the public
Internet.
Building on the Object Management Group's CORBA** and Internet Inter-ORB
Protocol (IIOP)** standards -- the glue that enables software from different
vendors to work together seamlessly -- the planned levels of integration will
allow the companies' software to work together as if it was created with the
same development tools, in the same language, with the same runtime, on the
same system.
"This initiative starts with four companies, but our goal is for an
industry ground swell to develop," said Steve Mills, general manager, IBM
Software Solutions Division. "Broad market acceptance of standards will
remove proprietary walls and other barriers to connectivity that our
customers struggle with today."
Interoperability will enable software developers to build new
applications by mixing and matching components created from a variety of
application development tools, technologies and platforms, including IBM's
VisualAge*, Oracle's Network Computing Architecture (NCA)*, Sun's Internet
Workshop*, WebServer* and Solaris* products, and Netscape ONE (Open Network
Environment)*.
"Ensuring a consistent approach in our products should help level the
software playing field and accelerate innovation within the computing
industry, and allow the vision of network computing to become a reality,"
said Jerry Held, senior vice president of Server Technologies for Oracle
Corporation. "The goal of each company involved in this agreement will be to
make computing easier and more cost effective for our customers and our
partners."
"Using a computer should be just as easy as the telephone," said Steve
MacKay, vice president and general manager, Solaris Products, SunSoft.
"People should be able to safely get exactly the information they want or
need any time, from any place in the world. To deliver this 'web-tone'
requires infrastructure that is even greater than the one used today by the
world's telephone companies. That's why Sun software is part of this
initiative."
Results of the collaboration, which will complement and enhance CORBA
and IIOP, will be submitted to the Object Management Group beginning this
year. Additionally, each of the four companies spearheading this initiative
is expected to deliver the first products adhering to the interoperability
standards, beginning with their next major releases.
"Participation in this industry initiative will underscore Netscape's
commitment to open standards as a critical driver of the emerging networked
enterprise," said Rick Schell, senior vice president and general manager,
Client Product Division, at Netscape. "By establishing product
interoperability as the platform for deploying intranet and extranet
solutions, Netscape plans to help corporate customers preserve their
investments in existing applications and corporate data, and integrate with a
common network architecture."
"The work these companies expect to do supports OMG objectives and
leverages our standards initiatives by using CORBA and IIOP," said Chris
Stone, president and chief executive officer of the OMG*. "The commitment to
help bring products to market from these vendors will clearly help
commercialize the Internet and distributed objects as a viable computing
model for the enterprise."
IBM Corporation
IBM, the world's largest software provider, creates, develops and
manufactures the industry's most advanced information technologies, including
computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices, and
microelectronics. Complete information about IBM, its products, services and
technology is available to Internet users through the World Wide Web. The
IBM home page is at www.ibm.com. The fastest, easiest way to get information
about IBM Software is to go to the IBM home page at www.software.ibm.com. |
Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is the world's leading supplier of
software for information management and the world's second largest software
company. With annual revenues of more than $4.2 billion, the company offers
its database, tools and application products, along with related consulting,
education, and support services, in more than 90 countries around the world.
For more information about Oracle, please call (415) 506-7000. Oracle's World
Wide Web address is www.oracle.com/.
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
JavaOne*, Sun's 1997 Worldwide Java Developer Conference*, will take
place April 2-4, 1997, at San Francisco's Moscone Center. Join over 8,000
developers, 200 industry partners and the creators of Java* technology to see
the Java platform reach critical mass. For more information or to register,
visit http://java.sun.com/javaone or call 800-488-2883.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network is the
Computer*," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ "SUNW") to its
position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for
establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the
Internet. With more than $7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in
more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
Netscape Communications Corporation
Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open
software for linking people and information over enterprise networks and the
Internet. The company offers a full line of clients, servers, development
tools and commercial applications to create a complete platform for
next-generation, live on-line applications. Traded on NASDAQ under the
symbol "NSCP," Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain View,
California.
# # #
* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of the respective companies,
including International Business Machines Corporation, Oracle
Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Netscape Communications
Corporation.
** Indicates trademark or registered trademark of the Object
Management Group.
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