Likewise, SOA itself provides mechanisms that can address many data management issues. Sumeet Vij, AIS Chief SOA Engineer at SAIC, recently posted a piece on the role of a data services layer as a way to facilitate service oriented integration, or SOI.
"With the proper SOA Governance and SOA Management, a Data Services Layer can provide a controlled and safe access mechanism to data stored in heterogeneous data sources. In the recent 2'nd Annual Department of Defense (DoD) SOA Symposium, most speakers professed that the majority of their Service Portfolio was comprised of Data Services, providing access to the data from various sources."
As companies rush to tap the potential of business intelligence and analytics, a data services layer offers that capability. The data services layer helps BI by, for one, making data accessible, Vij says.
A common standards interface "allows BI tools to retrieve and search data, irrespective of the data source type -- relational, flat file, mainframe etc. -- using industry standard protocols." The data services layer also helps mediate data, abstract data, and "increase organizational trust in data." This latter benefit is accomplished "as access to data is provided via a reusable, common service interfaces."
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