Data Integration - Problems, Approaches, and Perspectives

Data Integration – Problems, Approaches, and
Perspectives
Patrick Ziegler, Klaus R. Dittrich
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract. Data integration is one of the older research fields in the database area and
has emerged shortly after database systems were first introduced into the business
world. In this paper, we briefly introduce the problem of integration and, based on an
architectural perspective, give an overview of approaches to address the integration is-
sue. We discuss the evolution from structural to semantic integration and shortly pre-
sent our own research in the SIRUP (Semantic Integration Reflecting User-specific
semantic Perspectives) approach. Finally, an outlook to challenging areas of future re-
search in the realm of data integration is given.
1 Introduction
In today’s business world, it is typical that enterprises run different but co-
existing information systems. Employing these systems, enterprises strug-
gle to realize business opportunities in highly competitive markets. In this
setting, the integration of existing information systems is becoming more
and more indispensable in order to dynamically meet business and cus-
tomer needs while leveraging long-term investments in existing IT infra-
structure.
In general, integration of multiple information systems aims at combin-
ing selected systems so that they form a unified new whole and give users
the illusion of interacting with one single information system. The reason
for integration is twofold: First, given a set of existing information sys-
tems, an integrated view can be created to facilitate information access and
reuse through a single information access point. Second, given a certain in-
formation need, data from different complementing information systems is
combined to gain a more comprehensive basis to satisfy the need.
40 Patrick Ziegler, Klaus R. Dittrich
There is a manifold of applications that benefit from integrated informa-

tion. For instance, in the area of business intelligence (BI), integrated in-
formation can be used for querying and reporting on business activities, for
statistical analysis, online analytical processing (OLAP), and data mining
in order to enable forecasting, decision making, enterprise-wide planning,
and, in the end, to gain sustainable competitive advantages. For customer
relationship management (CRM), integrated information on individual
customers, business environment trends, and current sales can be used to
improve customer services. Enterprise information portals (EIP) present
integrated company information as personalized web sites and represent
single information access points primarily for employees, but also for cus-
tomers, business partners, and the public. Last, but not least, in the area of
e-commerce and e-business, integrated information enables and facilitates
business transactions and services over computer networks.
Similar to information, IT services and applications can be integrated,
either to provide a single service access point or to provide more compre-
hensive services to meet business requirements. For instance, integrated
workflow and document management systems can be used within enter-
prises to leverage intraorganizational collaboration. Based on the ideas of
business process reengineering (BPR), integrated IT services and applica-
tions that support business processes can help to reduce time-to-market
and to provide added-value products and services. Thereby, interconnect-
ing building blocks from selected IT services and applications enables
supply chain management within individual enterprises as well as coopera-
tion beyond the boundaries of traditional enterprises, as in interorganisa-
tional cooperation, business process networks (BPN), and virtual organiza-
tions. For instance, in e-procurement, supply and demand for producer
goods are provided with integrated information and services to streamline
the purchasing process for institutional buyers. Thus, it is possible to by-
pass intermediaries and to enable direct interaction between supply and
demand, as in business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C),
and business-to-employee (B2E) transactions. These trends are fuelled by
XML that is becoming the industry standard for data exchange as well as
by web services that provide interoperability between various software ap-
plications running on different platforms.
In the enterprise context, the integration problem is commonly referred
to as enterprise integration (EI). Enterprise integration denotes the capabil-
ity to integrate information and functionalities from a variety of informa-
tion systems in an enterprise. This encompasses enterprise information in-
tegration (EII) that concerns integration on the data and information level
and enterprise application integration (EAI) that considers integration on
the level of application logic. In this paper, we focus on the integration of

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Data Integration – Problems, Approaches, and

Patrick Ziegler, Klaus R. Dittrich

University of Zurich, Switzerland

There is a manifold of applications that benefit from integrated informa-

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