Using objects to structure distributed systems is becoming an increasingly popular paradigm. This thesis examines some of the fundamental problems associated with resource provision in such systems. A conceptual framework for the work is created by the development of a reference model for object oriented distributed systems. Within this framework, several aspects of resource provision are examined in detail. In each case, an object oriented solution is sought rather than applying existing, process based solutions. The problem of object construction in a heterogeneous environment is addressed, leading to the development of a distributed transformation algorithm for the automatic construction of object representations. A novel scheduling mechanism is developed based upon statistical hypothesis testing. Two applications of this mechanism are simulated in detail: the assignment of invocation messages to object instances, and the suppression of redundant status update messages. The concept of 'virtual properties' is introduced, leading to the development of virtual templates as a re-usable mechanism for endowing objects with properties such as resilience and persistence. The separate resource provision issues addressed are then drawn together to demonstrate how the techniques developed can be used to satisfy users' resource requirements.