Computing infrastructures are expanding their reach in every dimension. New platforms and applications   must interoperate with legacy systems. Virtual enterprises span multiple companies. The Internet is imposing new integration challenges as it extends into every corner of every organization. New implementation platforms are continually coming down the road, each claiming to be "the next big thing." 

Those who architect computer systems, whether for banks or battleships, face daunting technology choices. To protect their investments and maximize flexibility, they buy hardware that implements open interconnection standards like Ethernet and USB, and software that uses open interface standards like CORBA®. It's the only sensible course in today's rapidly changing, multi-vendor computing environment.

But as computers and networks become faster and cheaper, even interconnection standards must evolve. New technologies constantly appear for new application niches. One need look no further than the recent rise of XML to see how quickly this can happen. How can organizations ensure that their mission-critical information systems are rooted in standards that will adapt to new hardware capabilities and software platforms?

Now, the Object Management Group™ (OMG™) addresses this reality with MDA®, the Model Driven Architecture. MDA supports evolving standards in application domains as diverse as enterprise resource planning, air traffic control and human genome research; standards that are tailored to the needs of these diverse organizations, yet need to survive changes in technology and the proliferation of different kinds of middleware. The MDA addresses the complete life cycle of designing, deploying, integrating, and managing applications as well as data using open standards. MDA-based standards enable organizations to integrate whatever they already have in place with whatever they build today…and whatever they build tomorrow.

MDA addresses the challenges of today's highly networked, constantly changing systems environment, providing an architecture that assures:

• Portability, increasing application re-use and reducing the cost and complexity of application development and management, now and into the future.
• Cross-platform Interoperability, using rigorous methods to guarantee that standards based on multiple implementation technologies all implement identical business functions.
• Platform Independence, greatly reducing the time, cost and complexity associated with re-targeting applications for different platforms-including those yet to be introduced.
• Domain Specificity, through Domain-specific models that enable rapid imple-
  mentation of new, industry-specific applications over diverse platforms.
• Productivity, by allowing developers, designers and system administrators to use languages and concepts they are comfortable with, while allowing seamless communication and integration across the teams.

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