The Devil is in the Detail: A Comparison of CORBA Object Transaction Services

The CORBA Object Transaction Service (OTS) is a key component in many enterprise information systems built using distributed object technology. The Object Management Group (OMG) defines the OTS through a set of standard interfaces and services that a CORBA-compliant OTS must adhere to. Product vendors then implement a realization of the OTS in their CORBA technology. This level of standardization in theory allows application designers to architect their systems in a product-neutral manner, using a standard set of interfaces that all the various OTS implementations support. This paper examines three concrete OTS products from different vendors. The underlying approaches and architectures are compared, and their strengths and weaknesses analyzed. The analysis clearly shows that major differences exist in the behavior of the different products, and these have profound effects on application design and implementation.