October 27, 2010 – One of the latest buzzwords in our industry is “cloud”. Attached to computing, services, storage, etc., it seems to be the data link to the future. The concept of data cloud is simple. Find a way to link all the data islands under application silos. Therefore, you need to have access to metadata and create graphs of relationships. One company, Radiant Logic, offers a set of tools to pull data and virtualize. At a high level, it’s liberating the information and making it available for the business users.
Sys-Con Media shared this information in their article, “What is a Data Cloud?.” The various layers would include ontology and glossary (data dictionary or repository) where common entities and attributes would be collected. Then you need systems of reference (source) via identified hubs or registry, common federated query, and search and browse capabilities. This stack of various functions can yield what is called a true “data cloud”. This is not process integration. It is leaving data wherever it exists and creating some aggregation and consolidation for the user.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
