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Re: [ontology-summit] [Ontology Application Framework] Integration

To: Ontology Summit 2011 discussion <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Mike Bennett <mbennett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 02 Apr 2011 15:22:06 +0100
Message-id: <4D97310E.4040007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
That sounds really interesting. I was not saying that there is anything wrong with integration at run time, quite the opposite. It's just that if someone were to assume that was the only thing meant by integration, they would be mistaken since at least a few people (or maybe just me) mean something else by integration. So we would be talking at cross purposes.

Mike

On 02/04/2011 13:57, Tim Wilson wrote:
Mike, this brings up a question pertaining to my Master's project.  I am presenting the idea to my upper management that ontology can be used to correlate laser shot data stored in hundreds of database tables.  This type of data crunching would require run-time integration simply due to the fact that new data must be accessed quickly.  We need ontology to translate simply because of the volume of data that is stored on-shot.  The scientists do not want, nor have the capability, to write the complicated SQL queries necessary to view this data effectively, and creating reports takes days or weeks to process through our software development group.  Ontology could provide quick access to test theories before investing the time to create/run a full report. 

I should qualify this by saying that I am a Systems/Knowledge Engineer who is interested in ontology, not an ontologist.

Tim Wilson


On 4/1/2011 8:35 AM, Mike Bennett wrote:
Integration at run time is a nice idea, but it's not what I've ever been referring to when I use the term integration, for example in the use cases mentioned for the Ontology Summit.

Integration is more usually a project activity, taking some new system or feed and engineering what it would take to link it to some existing system. This involves reconciling the intended meanings of data elements (database fields, message elements) between the systems. Usually the meanings are dealt with in someone's head, and may be more or less correct but are not easily peer reviewed since the meanings are never made explicit. This is an existing task which ontology makes easier by having a single model of meanings and allowing for the intended meanings of data elements to be asserted as having a given meaning and reviewed as such, as well as allowing of a "hub and spoke" arrangement whereby each system or feed is related to one common set of terms (the ontology) rather than a many to many mapping as at present. So ontology delivers both accuracy and time savings to a task that already goes on, without fundamentally changing the nature (the use case) of that task.

So run time integration sounds like a powerful idea, but it's by no means what people mean when they use the existing term integration to describe the existing task of integration.

I think your use cases capture this, in particular the idea of master data management, which is also a major use case in the financial services world.

Mike

On 01/04/2011 08:41, Matthew West wrote:

Dear Michael G Michael U and Nicola,

 

I was reading this section on integration during the call last night, and it did not ring true to me, but I was struggling to put my finger on what I thought the problem was:

In this class of applications, the primary functionality is the matching and mapping of concepts, while the primary architecture is within a set of multiple systems. Ontologies are typically used at runtime by application developers (who are in the best position to write translators among the systems).    (2PQO)

  • information integration Multiple information resources are combined using ontologies at runtime to match concepts with similar meaning.    (2OM2)

Examples: web service composition, mashups, information aggregation, data fusion, linked data    (2PQP)

  • database integration Queries that require multiple databases are specified using common ontologies and data schema are matched using these ontologies at runtime.

After a troubled night’s sleep, I think I have a better idea.

 

In industry, when people talk about integration, they mean what it takes to turn a bunch of separate information systems into a single coherent system of systems. There are typically 4 types of integration with different characteristics:

 

1.       Core Process Integration: An enterprise will have at least one and maybe several core processes. These are the processes the execution of which are the purpose of the enterprise. In business they are often around the provision of goods or services to customers. These core processes are supported by information systems, and information needs to pass between them in order to efficiently perform the overall process, integrating the disparate systems involved. A key part of this will include Master Data Management so that all the systems use the same identification for key things like products and customers.

2.       Lifecycle Integration: There will be a number of things needed to support the core processes, such as factories and vehicles, each of which has a lifecycle that needs to be integrated. Particularly with large and long lived assets like factories and ships, information needs to be passed between lifecycle stages (e.g. design to construction, design and construction to operations, etc) and between the information systems that support the different processes in those different stages.

3.       Supply Chain Integration: When enterprises procure goods in particular, but also services, they do not just capture price information, part of the product will be information about it, and its use. This information needs to be integrated within the systems that are involved with the operation and use of those products.

4.       Business Intelligence (Performance Management): To understand how well an enterprise is performing its processes you need to be able to analyse the data that arises from the performance of its processes. This usually involves collecting and integrating the data from multiple systems, and populating star or snowflake schemas so that for example sales can be analysed by customer type, by product type, by geographic region, by volume, by value, by profitability etc.

 

I’m afraid I did not get a any sense of this from the description above.

 

The other thing that was implicit was that data resides in one system and  is queried from there (single source of truth). This is actually extremely unusual. Much more common is managed replication, for reasons of both performance and resilience. Take the business intelligence type of integration above. The source data is typically in one or more Transaction Processing systems, where there are no indices because when you create records, building the indices are what hits performance. So to perform the queries, not only do you need to do joins across the transaction data and the master data, but most queries will require a table scan. This of course will not only affect the performance of the query, but  the TP system as well. So a copy of the TP data is made at regular intervals and it is combined with the Master Data into massively denormalized tables that have indices on most columns. Performance is transformed.

 

There are in fact a variety of architectures possible for achieving data integration, which is suitable will depend on the circumstances. This paper of mine from 1998 outlines some of the possible approaches.

 

http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/documents/TheRoleOfEnterpriseModelsInIntegration.PDF

 

Regards

 

Matthew West                           

Information  Junction

Tel: +44 1489 880185

Mobile: +44 750 3385279

Skype: dr.matthew.west

matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/

http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/

 

This email originates from Information Junction Ltd. Registered in England and Wales No. 6632177.

Registered office: 2 Brookside, Meadow Way, Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, SG6 3JE.

 

 

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-- 
Mike Bennett
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-- 
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"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
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-- 
Mike Bennett
Director
Hypercube Ltd. 
89 Worship Street
London EC2A 2BF
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7917 9522
Mob: +44 (0) 7721 420 730
www.hypercube.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales No. 2461068

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