From component-based to service-based distributed applications assembly and management

Distributed applications are difficult to develop and manage due to their inherent dynamics and heterogeneity of component technologies and the possibility of different network protocols. Distributed component-based software applications consist of a collection of software components that communicate via a distributed middleware to provide distributed application services. The distributed middleware, or simply middleware plays a crucial role by providing APIs and support functions to bridge the gap between the network operating system and distributed components. Component and middleware technologies dramatically simplify the development of distributed applications, but it still difficult to assemble and manage such applications at runtime. In order to address this problem, we present the early findings of our work, which is concerned with the development of a middleware-based framework for the "on-demand" software assembly and subsequent management of distributed applications.