Who should attend: Systems administrators or project managers who want the information to address "their side" of the DCOM equation, and software developers who are new to the COM/DCOM world who desire an overview. This course will be of particular importance to support personnel working in a development environment who would like to better understand their own role in making client-server work. No programming experience is assumed; all examples will be conceptual, with no code involved.

Object-oriented programming is ubiquitous, but specifications such as Microsoft's Component Object Model and Distributed COM are essential for it to fulfill its potential. Client-server computing needs a robust communication infrastructure so that middleware can make a heterogeneous environment appear as a single system. What does a systems administrator need to know about COM and DCOM to coordinate with software developers in making this happen optimally? This course lays the groundwork and provides real techniques for addressing this question.

This presentation includes:

	A brief history of technologies leading up to DCOM (such as RPC, OLE, etc.) with technical details (and limitations) of each
	Where DCOM fits in relation to CORBA, and where each is appropriate
	An overview of essential structured programming concepts which COM and DCOM address
	A drill-down into the DCOM architecture
	DCOM security and management tools

This course will also include live demos of some of the COM management tools, as well as working inside the registry. We will also examine some of the COM-oriented security and interoperability tools. We will examine Microsoft-supplied and public-domain tools, as well as touching upon third-party tools where appropriate.