AN EXTENSIBLE ARCHITECTURE FOR INTEGRATING DISTRIBUTED HETEROGENEOUS DATABASE SYSTEMS

IN TODAY'S RAPIDLY CHANGING AND HIGHLY COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT, UNIMPEDED ACCESS TO INFORMATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR AN ORGANIZATION'S GROWTH AND SURVIVAL. OPTIMAL INFORMATION ACCESS REQUIRES FULL, TRANSPARENT INTEGRATION OF AVAILABLE INFORMATION RESOURCES. UNFORTUNATELY, INFORMATION RESOURCES ARE TYPICALLY CREATED AND EVOLVE IN RESPONSE TO SPECIFIC, INDEPENDENT ADMINISTRATIVE, MANAGERIAL OR ENGINEERING PROBLEMS. AS A CONSEQUENCE, THESE RESOURCES END UP RESIDING ON DISTINCT DATABASES ON DISPARATE DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ON HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTERS AND COMPUTER NETWORKS. EXISTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS CANNOT OVERCOME THESE INCOMPATIBILITIES TO SUPPORT READY ACCESS TO THESE DISTRIBUTED DATA RESOURCES. THE FOCUS OF THIS PHASE I PROPOSAL IS THE RESEARCH AND DESIGN OF A PRODUCT THAT OFFERS A SOLUTION TO THESE PERVASIVE SYSTEM INTEGRATION PROBLEMS. META-VIEWS WILL CONSIST OF A SET OF HIGH-LEVEL DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR ACHIEVING UNIFORM ACCESS TO HETEROGENEOUS DATA SOURCES AND APPLICATIONS DISTRIBUTED ACROSS DIFFERENT VENDOR PLATFORMS. META-VIEW ALSO SUPPORTS THE INTEGRATION OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, SUCH AS KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS WITH EXISTING HETEROGENEOUS DATA RESOURCES, APPLICATIONS, AND SUPPORTING HARDWARE PLATFORMS. META-VIEW'S MAJOR TECHNICAL FETURES WILL BE A VENDOR INDEPENDENT INTERFACE LIBRARY, A UNIFORM DATA MODEL, HIGH PERFORMANCE TRANSFORMATION BETWEEN DISPARATE DATA MODELS, DATABASE LOCATION TRANSPARENCY AND PEER TO PEER DATA FLOW BETWEEN DISTRIBUTED APPLICATIONS.