Interoperability support in distributed on-line monitoring systems

Sophisticated on-line tools play an important role in the software life-cycle, by decreasing software development and maintenance effort without sacrificing software quality. Using multiple tools simultaneously would be very beneficial; however, with most contemporary tools, this is impossible since they are often based on incompatible methods of data acquisition and control. This is due largely to their relative independence, and could be overcome by an appropriately designed common on-line monitoring system. We consider three possible platforms that might be potentially capable of addressing this issue, and discuss the relative merits and demerits of each.