BT Middleware — software as infrastructure

• Authors: J. Calladine
• Venue: BT Technology Journal
• Year: 1997

BT Middleware has been in production use since 1987. Every working day a user population of 60 000 people execute 25 million transactions on systems that generate in excess of 70% of BT‘s revenues. BT Middleware is installed on 32 production mainframe instances.BT Middleware provides both a development and run-time environment for applications that is controlled and manageable. Application standards can be enforced providing reuse of common code as well as common ‘look and feel‘ user interfaces. The use of BT Middleware has allowed the rapid implementation of leading edge solutions to pressing business requirements and Middleware is evolving to allow BT‘s operational support systems (OSS) to participate seamlessly in complex distributed architectures.The future for BT‘s OSS lies in their ability to integrate with new applications developed on open systems platforms. BT Middleware has been evolving to provide the required interconnection capabilities and now supports numerous batch and on-line interfaces via strategic infrastructure products. This paper describes the major Middleware infrastructure components developed and supported by BT‘s London Software Engineering Centre that allow the company‘s huge investment in OSS to be exploited in today‘s environment.