Software engineering for parallel and distributed systems: Challenges and opportunities

The task of developing software for parallel and distributed systems involves high costs and difficulties associated with the combination of distribution and concurrency during all the major phases of the software development cycle. These difficulties often cause systems to be faulty, difficult to maintain, and unscalable. Nevertheless, the importance of such systems warrants their development. Parallel and distributed systems based on distributed object technology currently serve as important tools of commercial organizations like banks. Recent developments have resulted in highly scalable, fault-tolerant systems employing multithreaded servers and multi-CPU workstations for business-critical applications.