A federated architecture for enterprise data integration

As a result of changes in business circumstances, corporate information systems that originally have been running independently are often required to cooperate to share data or processes, particularly in organisations that are the result of, or are going through, mergers or takeovers, since in this case the existing systems have been designed for different corporate needs, and the resulting enterprise will have to face information inconsistency, heterogeneity and incompatible overlap. To effect data integration, not only must reliable mechanisms for data flow between applications be put in place, but also consistent enterprise-wide protocols and procedures to ensure the availability, security and integrity of the corporate data. The paper describes how the federated architecture described by I.K. Wijegunaratne and G. Fernandez (1998) can be used for enterprise data integration, and how this framework is being implemented for the purpose at an Australian energy company that is expanding and diversifying its operations.