Object Management Group Meets in Orlando, FL USA; Extends Standards in Enterprise Web Services; Second Interoperability Summit Coordinates Standards Efforts.

Business/Technology Editors

Members of the Object Management Group(TM) (OMG(TM)) met in Orlando, Florida, USA from June 24 through 28, 2002 at a meeting sponsored by Rational Software Corporation. Group members began work to standardize a mapping that connects Web Services and Enterprise Collaboration Architecture (ECA), a framework for modeling complex business processes that links multiple departments or companies. This important standard will enable companies to implement models in Web Services, today's most visible middleware platform.

New Work on Infrastructure and Modeling Standards

The OMG also began work on three standards in the areas of infrastructure and modeling: Two of which will enhance the performance of OMG's Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA(R)) on specialized systems. Another will extend CORBA functionality to high-performance networked environments such as Infiniband and RapidIO. In the modeling arena, an effort will standardize access to, and management of, different versions of metadata.

CORBA Firewall Traversal Standard Adopted

A new standard for traversal of CORBA network packets through firewalls passed the final vote of OMG's Board of Directors, making it a formal specification, and architecture for online upgrades started the series of votes leading to final adoption. A revision to the CORBA standard upgraded the protocol IIOP(R) (Internet Inter-ORB Protocol) to work with IPv6, the emerging format for next-generation TCP/IP.

New Business Process, Enterprise Integration and C4i Standards

OMG's Domain Technology Committee (DTC) and its Task Forces adopt specifications for general business processes and industry-specific applications. To enable business processes such as workflow and electronic commerce to be designed and implemented in the MDA, the Business Enterprise Integration Domain Task Force (BEI DTF) will standardize a platform-independent model for runtime interfaces to business processes. OMG's C4I (Consultation, Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence) DTF, which works in the area of military and civil defense logistics, started work on generic SONAR interfaces, and the Software Radio group started defining components of a software-defined radio.

New Geospatial and Imagery Task Force Chartered

Members chartered the Geospatial and Imagery Domain Task Force to coordinate work between OMG and standards bodies in the field of geospatial and imagery technology, which will lead to MDA specifications in this area.

Sponsor Presentation

On Wednesday, meeting sponsor Rational Software Corporation gave a plenary presentation on developments in modeling and re-emphasized their support for the OMG MDA. Rational has a long-standing partnership with OMG around UML standardization and was proud to sponsor the Technical Meeting. As the use of model driven tools, like Rational Rose and Rational XDE, are becoming mainstream for software integration and development, Rational is continuing to break new ground in this area.

"We were positively overwhelmed by the OMG members reception we got at this particular OMG event as we showed some our newest development in the Rational XDE product," said Jochen Seemann, Rational Product manager, who delivered the event sponsor presentation.

Meeting Participation and Analyst Session

During an Industry Analyst Session, Tim Sloane of the Aberdeen Group spoke on UML, the MDA, and business modeling, and consultant Tom Welsh spoke about the future of Web Services. One of the tutorials given during the week surveyed all of OMG's specifications, while three others concentrated on the UML profile for Enterprise Distributed Object Computing (EDOC), the CORBA Component Model, and the suite of specifications grouped together as CORBA 3.

The US Army Weapon Systems Technical Architecture Working Group (WSTAWG) hosted a co-located meeting with OMG, and twelve companies demonstrated their implementations of OMG-standardized technology.

Second Interoperability Summit

Forty-eight delegates, representing mainly computer standards organizations and consortia, convened as the second Interoperability Summit on Thursday and Friday. Hosted by the OMG, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), The Open Group, hrXML, and XBRL, the summit provides an opportunity for organizations to coordinate and synchronize work in related technology areas.

UML 2.0 to Progress at Next Meeting

OMG members will next meet in Helsinki, Finland, during the week of September 30 through October 4, 2002. In Helsinki, members will progress specifications for release 2.0 of the Unified Modeling Language(TM) (UML(TM)), and for interoperability between CORBA and Web Services. Interested non-members may request to come as observers; for information see www.omg.org/news/meetings/tc/guest.htm.

About The OMG

With well-established standards covering software from design and development, through deployment and maintenance, and extending to evolution to future platforms, the Object Management Group (OMG) supports a full-lifecycle approach to enterprise integration which maximizes ROI, the key to successful IT. Based on the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), OMG's standards cover multiple operating systems, programming languages, middleware and networking infrastructures, and software development environments. OMG's Modeling standards, the basis for the MDA, include the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM). CORBA, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is OMG's standard open platform with hundreds of millions of deployments running today. OMG's well-established CORBAservices and industry-specific standards are being re-issued under the MDA in many popular middleware environments. OMG domain (industry-specific) standards cover vertical markets including healthcare, telecommunications, biotechnology, transportation and a

dozen other areas. The OMG is headquartered in Needham, MA, USA, with a U.S. government representative in Washington, DC, and international marketing offices in Japan, the UK, and Germany.

The Object Management Group is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry specifications consortium. OMG member companies write, adopt, and maintain the organization's standards following a mature, open process. All current OMG specifications may be downloaded without charge from the organization's website, www.omg.org; the site also provides additional information about OMG and its activities. For information on joining the OMG, or questions not addressed on the website, please contact OMG headquarters by email at [e-mail], by phone at [phone], or by fax at [phone]. The OMG provides current information and services for distributed enterprise computing through The Information Brokerage(R) service on the World Wide Web at www.omg.org and www.corba.org.

Note to editors: The OMG Object Management Group Logo(R), CORBA(R), CORBA Academy(R), The Information Brokerage(R), XMI(R) and IIOP(R) are registered trademarks of the Object Management Group. OMG(TM), Object Management Group(TM), CORBA logos(TM), OMG Interface Definition Language (IDL)(TM), The Architecture of Choice for a Changing World(TM), CORBAservices(TM), CORBAfacilities(TM), CORBAmed(TM), CORBAnet(TM), Integrate 2002(TM), Middleware That's Everywhere(TM), UML(TM), Unified Modeling Language(TM), The UML Cube logo(TM), MOF(TM), CWM(TM), The CWM Logo(TM), Model Driven Architecture(TM), Model Driven Architecture Logos(TM), MDA(TM), OMG Model Driven Architecture(TM), OMG MDA(TM) and the XMI Logo(TM) are trademarks of the Object Management Group. All other products or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.