Page #61 (Part II: The Extension)

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[oR]

Chapter 4. Essence of COM+

In the previous chapters, we built the foundation of the component object model. By providing the ability to link components dynamically and by standardizing the communication interface between the components to a binary level, we provided a way for software developers to reuse code without regard to the compiler or programming language.

Although COM provides a good infrastructure for developers to create software products, it does not alleviate the problems of developing enterprise systems applications that are used in large organizations such as banks, airlines, insurance companies, and hospitals. The development complexity arises from the extra enterprise-level requirements such as scalability, robustness, security, transaction support, etc.

In order to meet these requirements, enterprise application designers tend to develop their own in-house software infrastructure. Thus, developing enterprise systems not only becomes a slow process, but also consumes resources for development and maintenance, for what is essentially a generic infrastructure problem.

COM+ is an advanced COM run-time environment that provides solutions to many generic infrastructure problems, including those previously mentioned. It is an integral part of Windows 2000 operating system.

In this chapter, we examine in detail the requirements for enterprise systems and get an overview of the services provided by COM+ to facilitate developing enterprise systems.

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