3.1.1 Organizational model

CORBA has no notion of hierarchy but assumes symmetric peer-to-peer relationships between objects; in terms of management, this results in an extension of the role model: Not only are manager/agent or manager/manager relationships possible, but also agent/agent relationships. This simplifies the distribution and delegation of management functionality and supports cooperation between different components of the management infrastructure. It is therefore not only possible to delegate functionality from managing systems to managed systems but also between managed systems.

Another point is that the roles of systems participating in management activities are subject to dynamic changes: roles like "managing system" and "managed system" are temporary and bound to the tasks to be done. This has major implications on security (see 3.2.2).