Distributed object computing platforms
Asuman Doğaç, Cevdet Dengi, M. TAMER ÖZSU · Communications of the ACM · 1998
An alternative approach to achieving interoperability among DBMSs is the multidatabase approach [11].A multidatabase system resides unobtrusively on top of existing database systems and presents a single database illusion to its users.In particular, a multidatabase system maintains a single global database schema against which its users issue queries and updates.It is suggested that this is the approach that should be preferred over gateways [5].One restriction of multidatabase systems has been that they cannot handle repositories that do not have DBMS capabilities.The introduction of object-oriented technology into data management [3] has lifted this restriction.Object-orientation, with its encapsulation and abstraction capabilities, enables the development of wrappers that encapsulate a particular repository and provide a common DBMS-like interface to the rest of the system.The components of the interoperable system may be DBMSs, other types of repositories, or legacy systems [1].Fundamentally, interoperability of systems does not imply distribution.However, in practice, systems that interoperate are usually distributed.A common and current example is the interoperation among data repositories on the World-Wide Web.In such a distributed environment, capabilities and functionality of the distributed object management [9] platform have to be taken into account when designing the architecture of multidatabase systems.Here we discuss the role of distributed object computing platforms, in particular Object Management Group's (OMG) Object Management Architecture (OMA) [12] in providing an interoperability platform.We report our experiences in developing a distributed multidatabase system over such a platform.