  For more than a decade the Joint Astronomy Centre has been developing
software tools to simplify observing and make it possible to use the telescopes
in many different operational modes. In order to support remote operations the
data handling systems need to be in place to allow observation preparation,
flexible queue scheduling, data quality pipelines and science archives all to
be connected in a data-driven environment. We discuss the history of these
developments at UKIRT and JCMT and how the decision to combine software
development at both telescopes led each to get features that they could not
have justified if they were treated independently.
