Object-oriented programming transition strategies

Caterpillar, Inc., today, from a logical perspective, has a mainframe environment with approximately: 20,000 “dumb’ terminals (3270, 5250, and VTlOO); 20,000 PC’s & workstations, that from the mainframe perspective act as “dumb’ terminals; and 20,000 terminals, PC’s or workstations located at dealers, customers, and suppliers. Caterpillar, Inc., believes that long term it will be migrating to the three tier client/server architecture with a “big” server or scalable mainframe; a “little” or local server; and local clients. A major effort is underway at Caterpillar, Inc., to manage the migration from mainframe to client/server, and especially the transition where both environments will be co-existing. In mid-1992, within this migration and transition effort, it was decided to evaluate the role object-oriented technology would play-would it be a key or an enabling technology?