Benefits of the Object-Oriented Approach

The advantages of taking an object-oriented approach to systems management are:

• Synergy with standards activities. The major standards activities, de jure and de facto, as well as emerging work, are using this approach. Alignment with the standards bodies makes the eventual solution easier.

• Codified structure of management information. The structuring of management information as Managed Objects, with a clear distinction between the Managed Object representation and the actual Resource, provides for implementation-independence and interoperability.

• Subclassing or specialisation of objects. The ability to derive a new object definition from an existing object definition provides the ability to extend a system's function, building upon prior work.

• Generalisation of objects. The ability to represent a particular Resource as more than one type of object provides additional opportunities for interoperation between different systems.

• Encapsulation of data. Data encapsulation (making specific data accessible only through a well-defined, message-based interface) provides multiple benefits:

  • Integrity of the object is preserved. As the internal operations of the object are not exposed, the interactions with the object are controlled through its definition. The definition will not allow inclusion of implementation material, such as how operations are performed and how the appropriate consistency constraints are to be enforced.

  • Modularity is encouraged. As the objects are only accessed through their message-based interface, design priority is given to modular, object-centred implementations.
    

  • An existing application can be hidden behind interface software that allows it to be regarded as an object, thus allowing a simple means of integration that preserves existing investment.

• Message-based communications. A message-based communications scheme provides multiple benefits:

  • Location transparency is facilitated. The connection to other objects can establish pathways for the location-transparent exchange of messages.

  • Interoperability is facilitated. Through the use of standard protocols, messages can be reliably transmitted from one object to another.