Generic support for distributed applications

In the late 1980s, software designers tems. Since then, the rapid evolution of technology has caused an explosion of distributed-processing requiremen ts. Application developers now routinely expect to support multimedia syste ms and mobile users and computers. Timely response to asynchronous events i s crucial to such applications, but current platforms do not adequately mee t this need. Another need of existing and emerging applications is the secure interopera bility of independent services in large-scale, widely distributed systems. Information systems serving organizations such as universities, hospitals, and government agencies require cross-domain interaction. To meet the needs of these applications, Cambridge University researchers d eveloped middleware extensions that provide a flexible, scalable approach t o distributed-application development. This article details the extensions they developed, explaining their distri buted software approach and the support it has provided for emerging applic ations.