A practical XML-based enterprise data integration platform

In order to improve competitiveness and abilities to cooperate with other companies, an enterprise needs to integrate multiple application systems within its own boundary as well as those belonging to its partners. Data integration often is the foundation for a successful cooperation. A successful integration of multiple and heterogeneous data sources permits various data formats to flow smoothly and be shared within an enterprise. In general, database gateway is constructed to solve this data flow problem by using ODBC or JDBC database interface. However, construction of these database gateways suffers from difficulties like long development cycle, inflexibility, and high cost. Experience has revealed many advantages of XML in terms of data integration from multiple sources, variety in the view of data, flexibility of local computation and processing, adaptation of data granularity, and separation of data and representation format. This paper discusses an XML-based integration framework for multiple heterogeneous data sources that would fulfill the needs for enterprises. This framework emphasizes on the effectiveness, reliability, and security of the integrated systems.