Middleware for dependable network services in partitionable distributed systems

We describe the design and implementation of Jgroup: a middleware system that integrates group technology with distributed objects and is based on Java RMI. Jgroup supports a programming paradigm called object groups and enables development of dependable network services based on replication. Among the novel features of Jgroup is a uniform object-oriented interface for programming both services and their clients. The fact that Jgroup exposes network effects, including partitions, to applications makes it particularly suitable for developing highly-available services in partitionable distributed systems.