What is ANSA?

ANSA (Advanced Networked Systems Architecture) was a research program in the 1980s and 1990s that aimed to define an architecture for distributed computing systems. It focused on providing a framework for building applications that could operate across heterogeneous networks and platforms. ANSA introduced concepts like distributed object management, trading (service discovery), and security mechanisms. While the original ANSA framework isn't widely used in its original form today, its concepts have influenced modern distributed systems technologies and standards like CORBA and distributed object computing.