March 07, 2005
(Computerworld)
Enterprise Information Integration (EII) is another recent approach to front-end integration. EII provides an integrated view of multiple data sources. Unlike EAI, it doesn't move data. Instead, EII puts an abstract layer over the data sources so users and applications think they're dealing with a single data source.
Gary Lien, systems architect at health club chain Life Time Fitness Inc., used Composite Software Inc.'s Composite Information Server to create a single interface to unite his point-of-sale system, his member management system and a database archive of historical customer data. A browser provides one view of the data, so employees don't need to fetch information from each system. The browser sends the query to the Composite Information Server, which collects the information from the various sources and presents it to the user.
Lien prefers EII to back-end data integration or replication. "It's a high-maintenance task to keep everything replicated and synchronized," he says. The simplicity of the tool is also an advantage, says Lien. "When you're writing a query, it looks like a single database with views, and you just combine the views you want."