FRAMINGHAM (09-22-95) - SunSoft Inc. last week introduced its long- awaited Distributed Objects Environment technology with a new name and a new game plan.
Neo is a line of tools and network services that let corporations develop applications faster, change them more readily and help them conduct business across the World-Wide Web more easily, according to Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer of SunSoft's parent, Sun Microsystems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
Objects built with and managed by Neo will be accessible via Motif and Windows clients, as well as via the Net from Web browsers and applications built with Java, SunSoft's development language for interactive Web-based applications.
The combination of Neo and Java lets corporations build Web pages that work with server-based objects and existing relational databases.
"We are taking an enterprise object environment and extending it over the Internet in a way that lets you get data close to customers," McNealy said.
The Neo architecture has been carefully thought out, according to analysts and users. Sun also has delivered an advanced set of network services, called NeoShare, that handle such tasks as activating and deactivating objects. There is a suite of application development tools for building distributed objects and an array of administrative tools for managing them.
But they also agreed that Neo has a ways to go before becoming a first choice for key business applications. "Sun has built in some impressive capabilities. On the other hand, it's a Version 1.0 product," said David Smith, a research director with Gartner Group Inc., a market research firm in Stamford, Conn.
One beta user, citing a company policy requesting anonymity, said Neo offers an excellent implementation of the network services specified in the Object Management Group's Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), such as naming and object persistence.
Beyond this, he said, SunSoft has created powerful new services that will be needed in large-scale, line-of-business applica- tions. Object-oriented communications is typically synchronous -- both client and server objects are, in effect, put on hold while the server responds to a client request.
"Because of this one fact, we don't feel that in a distributed object environment, the [synchronous] model will scale in high volumes," the user said.
By contrast, Neo's event service supports asynchronous connections -- a simpler, more efficient model. The event service also enables developers to use multicasting and broadcasting communications, such as sending a stock ticker data feed to multiple networked objects.
The Neo product line has three main parts. One is Solaris Neo, the operating or run-time environment for Neo applications. Solaris Neo is compatible with SunSoft's Solaris 2.4 operating system and runs in conjuction with Solaris nets. In the initial release, Solaris Neo will comprise Neonet, a CORBA-compliant ORB and related services, and Neoshare, which provides advanced object services.
The next Neo release, due to hit beta tests during the fourth quarter, will include NeXT Computer Inc.'s OpenStep run-time environment for object- oriented desktop applications and Neodesktop, a desktop user environment based on OpenStep.
The second part, bundled with Solaris Neo, will be Solstice Neo, a set of object administration tools for managing the object network.
The third part is WorkShop Neo, a version of SunSoft's WorkShop development tool set. WorkShop Neo initially will include Neoworks, a set of tools for building CORBA object applications, and SPARCworks, which will include an array of tools for building and debugging distributed applications.
In Neo's next release, WorkShop Neo will incorporate NeXT's OpenStep Developer, a set of tools for building distributed applications from reusable components.
The first release of the Solaris Neo product line, due in October, will include Neonet and NeoShare, plus a bundle of Solstice Neo administration tools, for $990.
WorkShop Neo prices start at $11,995, but the offering will ship for a short time for a promotional price of $5,995.
SunSoft: (512) 345-2412.
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