In the preceding chapters, we have looked at the Microsoft technologies you can use today to build component-based three-tier distributed applications. Central to the Microsoft strategy is a programming model based on COM and, on the server, MTS. In September 1997, Microsoft announced that in the future COM and MTS would be unified. The name given to this unified set of component services is COM+. The initial release of COM+ is likely to appear in Microsoft Windows NT 5. In this chapter, we'll look at the features that are expected to appear in COM+ 1.0 and at how COM+ will affect distributed application development.
NOTE
At the time this chapter was written, COM+ 1.0 had just entered its initial beta; some details might change prior to release.