Benchmark metrics for enterprise object request brokers

Abstract

The growing interest in using Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) to distribute application objects over heterogeneous environments has led to an explosive growth in the number of Fortune 500 companies deploying major, mission-critical applications using such client/server (c/s) architectures. Unfortunately, there is little in terms of literature that describes the complexities and issues encountered in scaling these architectures. This is due, in large part, to the relative infancy of CORBA technology when compared to other client/server architectures. The paper attempts to address some of the potential issues involved in large scale deployments of CORBA technology in highly scaled configurations. The paper makes some empirical assessments of appropriate design-guiding parameters for scalability, and discusses how to arrive at these parameters through a traceable lifecycle process. The paper also provides some guidance on what measures are appropriate to use when estimating an ORB's performance envelope, so as to appropriately extrapolate its behavioral characteristics in fully scaled production deployments.