Enterprise Information Integration: Successes, Challenges and Controversies Alon Y. Halevy∗(Editor), Naveen Ashish,y Dina Bitton,z Michael Carey,x Denise Draper,{ Jeff Pollock,k Arnon Rosenthal,∗∗Vishal Sikkayy ABSTRACT Several factors came together at the time to contribute to The goal of EII Systems is to provide uniform access to the development of the EII industry. First, some technolo- multiple data sources without having to first loading them gies developed in the research arena have matured to the into a data warehouse. Since the late 1990's, several EII point that they were ready for commercialization, and sev- products have appeared in the marketplace and significant eral of the teams responsible for these developments started experience has been accumulated from fielding such systems. companies (or spun off products from research labs). Sec- This collection of articles, by individuals who were involved ond, the needs of data management in organizations have in this industry in various ways, describes some of these changed: the need to create external coherent web sites experiences and points to the challenges ahead. required integrating data from multiple sources; the web- connected world raised the urgency for companies to start communicating with others in various ways. Third, the 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS emergence of XML piqued the appetites of people to share data. Finally, there was a general atmosphere in the late 90's Alon Halevy that any idea is worth a try (even good ones!). Importantly, University of Washington & Transformic Inc. data warehousing solutions were deemed inappropriate for
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