Did you know...

Data integration is unavoidable in an information environment where numerous databases jostle with each other for dominance. Data integration is required to combine different databases and present a unified and seamless view to users.

By Odalys E. Anton

Data integration is one of the most important aspects of information technology today. There are many reasons why it has assumed importance. Firstly, this is required to address the issue of legacy systems. A decade back mainframes ruled the information industry and databases were stored in flat files. As technology matured we moved on to relational database models. Here again , we had small databases like Access working along with giants like Oracle, Sybase and Microsoft SQL server. IBM realizing the potential of desktops, created a version called DB2 UDB to cater to this section of the audience. Web applications added to the complexity of data storage. It is but obvious that a unified platform was required to provide a single window view of all these databases. The cost of converting legacy mainframe databases was too huge and data integration was the only solution.

Another important factor which led to data integration was mergers and acquisitions. Consider a travel portal merging with an airline company. The former may have been working with a MS SQL server and the later with Oracle. Again data integration is the only answer. A unified view of the entire data is required to seamlessly integrate and present information. Accomplishing this is possible with data integration.

One of the data integration techniques widely used is ETL or Extraction, Transformation and Loading. In this method data from various databases is extracted and transformed into a single framework and then loaded in a single database. Users access data from this unified database. This is a simple data warehousing solution and is effective most of the times. The problem arises when a real time database is unified. Since the process of ETL has to be executed on a particular database before making it available to a unified database, users may be provided with stale data unless the ETL process is repeated at frequent intervals. This adds to the overheads and reduces efficiency. Many other models have been designed to address these issues.

The latest development which has given impetus to data integration is SaaS. Many organizations have adopted SaaS tools and this platform cannot perform efficiently without data integration tools. In house databases have to coexist with other vendor databases and seamless operations can be achieved only with data integration.

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Data integration is unavoidable in the present scenario of information explosion. Data warehousing, business intelligence, expert systems and the like are muscled by data integration techniques. Without data integration there will be chaos.

Thank you,

Odalys E. Anton

For comments or inquiries regarding this newsletter please contact me at the following address odalysanton@greencodetech.com

Did you know...

Low cost, pay per use is becoming popular among small and mid sized companies.

By Jose L. Anton

Software as a service or Saas has been always operating under the radar screen for long. It is only lately, that developments in technology have pushed it to the forefront. The obvious advantage of software as a service model is the drastic reduction in cost. Institutions and individuals can now pay for the software depending on usage rather than licensing the entire software package. Another no so obvious advantage is the absence of maintenance on software. One need not spend on software engineers and staff, who would install, maintain and troubleshoot. This can lead to substantial savings for an organization.

Realizing the potential of Saas, many established companies have moved into this space. The industries which are most likely candidates for Saas are the CRM and remote system administration, where most of the action is being witnessed. There is activity on the productivity suites also. The document suite consisting of a editing software, spreadsheet and presentation from Google is a very good example of Saas. One can now use any of these applications online without downloading or installing them. Another important feature of the Google suite is the online real time collaboration. Zoho is another company which has been quite active in the Saas space. These developments have dented the faith of Microsoft in maintaining its premier position in the application space. Being free, it does not help Microsoft’s cause any.

SAP, which operates in the ERP or Enterprise resource planning space , has remodeled its CRm suite on Saas. This means that SAP’s customer relationship model can be deployed at very low cost. The pay per use Saas concept is suitable for many small enterprises that do not have the infrastructure to maintain and deploy CRM software in its original avatar. Remote system administration is another area where Saas has made inroads. The nature of this business is such that systems can be maintained from any location. One of the largest VC funding for a SaaS venture this year was   by Barcelona-based NTRglobal, one of Europe’s biggest SaaS players with more than twelve thousand business customers. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

The major hurdle to successful Saas deployments has been the technology. As more robust solutions emerge with better reliability and seamless integration with desktops ,  Saas would take a hold on the software industry. On the other hand Software giants like Microsoft are trying desperately to keep their hold on the industry with their own unique offerings. According to this   camp, Saas would never be able to compete with the robustness and reliability of on-site installations. Only time will tell who is right. But as of now I would place my bets on Saas.

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Architecture & Stardards News

• Committee Aims to Develop Bioinformatics Standards
• BSA Criticizes EUs Open Standards Policy
• US Health IT Standards Go Global

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Implementing standards in your business process gives you a competitive advantage by ensuring that you have a say in how technology such as XML will work and will be implemented in future products. Participating also gives enterprise IT a chance to play a role in the struggle to develop technologies that are not only interoperable but also lower the cost of doing business, but choosing which standards bodies to participate in, however, can be as complex as the technologies being worked on. You should, first, look at your long-term IT goals and decide which technologies—and therefore which groups—will be most important to your business, experts advice is recommended, counting with a Sr. System Diretor of Architecture & Standards for your Virtual IT Department is the intelligent option.

Thank you,

Jose L. Anton

For comments or inquiries regarding this newsletter please contact me at the following address %mymail