If devices have sufficient computing power, they can use an object oriented operating system in which devices are represented by objects and each is referenced through a registry. Objects on remote devices can be accessed as an extension to that registry by using procedural calls to locate and lock in the required object. In a reverse way local objects can be accessed via remote clients. This enables system components to interact.

This interaction raises issues like the type of service, performance, security and missing or loss of service. Therefore competing systems have had to encompass large and demanding specifications which continue to evolve as technology and expectation change.

Two of the more common specifications are the Object Request Broker (ORB) used by CORBA, and the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) used by COM/DCOM. In general both systems specify the same goal, namely the interconnection of distributed objects, but achieve it in a different but necessarily complex way.