Object Computing

Porting Middleware Solutions Rapidly

Object Computing, Inc. (OCI) is a software engineering firm specializing in distributed systems and infrastructure consulting using open-source high performance middleware.

Customer Challenges

Develop mission-critical middleware for mixed operating environments
Improve reliability and predictability
Offer higher performance through support for the AMD Opteron platform
Support open-source applications

Solution

OCI develops and supports customers using the multiple-platform capabilities of Solaris, which includes support for the AMD Opteron platform.

Business Results

Enables faster problem-solving
Offers fast migration of code
Supports multiple platforms and open-source technology
Highly reliable and predictable

Products and Services

Solaris 10 Operating System

Story Details

Object Computing (OCI) faces the challenge of developing increasingly complex mission-critical middleware products at an affordable price for its demanding client base. Most of OCI's clients have mixed operating environments. OCI provides an abstraction layer that enables clients to develop code that can be ported across operating system platforms.When porting a solution for a large aerospace customer, OCI took a risk and developed it on Solaris for the AMD Opteron platform to take advantage of its superior performance in x86 environments. The OCI engineers were confident that the solution would port to the SPARC platform, but were surprised by how easily the task was accomplished. "We received an unexpected benefit when porting," says Malcolm D. Spence, Director of Business Development for OCI. "We thought we'd be close, but we didn't think it would be as straightforward as simply just moving the code." Having Solaris work so well under this kind of pressure was assurance that future migrations would be fast and easy.

" We have always been a strong user and proponent of Sun systems. They have never disappointed us, and often surprised us, like they did with the Opteron platform option for their Solaris OS "

— Dr. Ebrahim Moshiri, CEO, Object Computing, Inc.

Using Solaris for the AMD Opteron platform, OCI fixes its customer's problems faster than ever before, and then compiles the solution on Solaris for the SPARC platform. The features of Solaris are the same on both platforms, which enables OCI to quickly solve problems in its customer applications, and then test the fix across multiple platforms to ensure robustness. Solaris also enables OCI to design and engineer high-performance middleware applications faster than the competition and serve a demanding customer base looking for solutions that behave predictably and in a deterministic manner in real time. The choice of Solaris also helps OCI support open-source initiatives and utilize open-source tools and applications in its projects with clients. "Our customers need their systems to run everywhere with highly predictable, highly reliable behavior and the ability to push priority assertions from ‘end to end' across widely diverse networks," adds Spence. "Solaris helps us implement the support and service our customers demand."