CORBA, or the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is a standard defined by the Object Management Group (OMG) that enables software components written in different programming languages to communicate over a network. It allows for the integration of various applications, regardless of their underlying platforms, by using a common protocol. The main component of CORBA is the Object Request Broker (ORB), which acts as a middleware that facilitates the communication between client requests and server responses. This architecture supports distributed computing, making it easier for developers to build scalable and interoperable systems across diverse environments.