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- Novell Selects HyperDesk's Distributed Object Management System to Access
- NetWare Services and Resources
- Object Oriented Interface Will Make Interoperable Network Application
- Development Easier
-
- PROVO, Utah -- January 12, 1993 -- As a catalyst to speed the development of
- the next generation of networked applications, Novell today announced it has
- selected HyperDesk Corporation's Distributed Object Management System
- (HD-DOMS) to provide an object-based interface to services and resources
- within the NetWare environment. HD-DOMS standards-compliant software will
- make networked applications simpler to write as well as easier to update and
- maintain, without the need for major rewrites. Networked applications based
- on HD-DOMS technology will have the added advantages of being interoperable
- across diverse computing environments and tightly integrated into NetWare's
- powerful and distributed network services.
-
- Novell's plans for implementing HD-DOMS technology comes at the same time the
- company is announcing it owns a minority equity in HyperDesk (for details see
- related business announcement). Both announcements reflect Novell's ongoing
- commitment to growing the networking industry by delivering leading technology
- products. The HyperDesk relationship is part of Novell's strategy to partner
- with companies specializing in key technologies in order to accelerate the
- availability of technology to customers.
-
- Novell, which is licensing the HD-DOMS platform from HyperDesk and bundling it
- as NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) with NetWare v3.x and future releases,
- plans to make its core and extended NetWare services HD-DOMS-ready, providing
- NetWare developers with a single, uniform object-based interface for all
- client platforms. Currently, developers must use a number of different
- interfaces for application development. HD-DOMS is language independent
- allowing developers to access NetWare services with object and non
- object-oriented languages without knowledge of the services' location or
- implementation. Novell will also work with HyperDesk and the Object
- Management Group (OMG) to ensure that these interfaces remain compatible with
- future industry standards.
-
- John Edwards, executive vice president of Novell's Desktop Systems Group
- explains the impact that simplified access to NetWare services will have on
- the development process. Says Edwards, "Application development in
- heterogeneous distributed computing environments has been difficult and
- time-consuming. Treating NetWare services, resources, data -- and eventually,
- voice and images -- as objects that can be accessed through a uniform
- interface, will speed the work. Developers will now be able to concentrate
- more on adding functionality to the application and less on the mechanics of
- networking. Customers will benefit from a whole new set of powerful
- applications that work seamlessly in the NetWare environment."
-
- In commenting on Novell's selection of HyperDesk as a partner, Jan Newman,
- executive vice president of Novell's NetWare Systems Group said, "HyperDesk's
- extensive expertise in object-based interfaces made them an attractive Novell
- partner for two reasons: their demonstrated strength in serving the UNIX
- customer, which will integrate well with our own UNIX strategy; and their
- standards-based approach, of increasing importance to the customer, which will
- further integrate the NetWare environment into the open standards arena."
-
- HyperDesk's HD-DOMS is the first open, standard distributed object management
- system based on the Object Management Group's CORBA (Common Object Request
- Broker Architecture) standard for portability and interoperability. As
- currently defined, HD-DOMS will support DOS, Windows, NetWare and UNIX.
-
- "The combination of technologies from Novell and HyperDesk will bring a new
- generation of capabilities to NetWare users. HD-DOMS for NetWare will bring
- shared access to reusable objects, making NetWare the environment of choice
- for integrating network services and resources," said Jerry Levin, vice
- chairman of HyperDesk.
-
- How the Technology Will Work
-
- HD-DOMS is a distributed object framework used to provide interoperability,
- portability and reusability of software components across a wide range of
- servers, workstations and PCs in a heterogeneous distributed computing
- environment. HD-DOMS for NetWare will provide an object request broker (ORB)
- and repositories in the form of NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) for objects,
- interfaces and implementations.
-
- Client applications will log into the ORB and issue requests on object-based
- resources and services, through an industry-standard interface. The ORB's
- function is to transmit the request, locate the object and bind the request to
- the appropriate implementation. Any resource, hardware, software or service
- can be considered an "object" and since HD-DOMS is architected as a dynamic
- interface, new objects are easily added at anytime. The object repositories
- initially will be based on Btreive, Novell's high-performance native index
- file system for data.
-
- HyperDesk will distribute and support HD-DOMS for NetWare software development
- kits (SDKs). The full SDK, expected to ship the second half of this year,
- will allow NetWare developers to build any component (client or service) of a
- distributed, HD-DOMs-enabled application. A client SDK for developers who
- need to do client application development only will also be made available.
-
- Using this SDK, NetWare developers will be able to: write or adapt client
- applications to use a single, portable interface to request NetWare-based
- services; abstract and encapsulate their own NetWare-based services using a
- language-neutral capability; and design and build new object-based services.
-
- Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is an operating system software company, the
- developer of network services, specialized and general purpose operating
- system software products including NetWare, UnixWare and DR DOS. Novell's
- NetWare network computing products manage and control the sharing of services,
- data and applications among computer workgroups, departmental networks and
- business-wide information systems.
-