Using Microsoft Distributed Object Technology

by Paul Greenfield

The vision of distributed computing has been an attractive one for the computing industry for many years. The original goal was to build computer systems that reflected the distributed nature of real organizations. This was made possible by the advent of relatively low-cost minicomputers that could be located in field offices and warehouses alongside their users. These distributed systems would reduce the dependence on centralized systems and slow communications networks. Productivity would be improved through faster response times and better system availability. Costs would be reduced by using cheaper, smaller computers and by lowering communications costs. This vision proved difficult to achieve in practice because of the complexity and technical challenges that proved to be inherent in distributed computing.