Canonical Data Model
Leveraging a Canonical Data Model Simplifies Enterprise Integration
As the enterprise IT environment has become increasingly complex, organizations are seeking ways to simplify the task of integrating systems and data. Settling on a canonical data model can bring consistency to data by establishing a universal schema and a set of semantics across all applications and systems. With a canonical model, developers have a prescribed format and validation rules for data fields, helping to streamline the development process and protect the integrity of data. But adopting a canonical data model isn't easy—different departments within the enterprise may want autonomy, and one single model may not serve all areas of the enterprise equally well. For enterprises who want a set of tools to help adopt a canonical data model, Progress Software provides industry-leading solutions in Artix and DataXtend for data interoperability.
Simplifying Semantic Integration of Diverse Services with a Canonical Data Model
A canonical data model represents the common semantic structures across data sources and data services -- that is, the agreed-upon attributes, operations, and relationships for entities fundamental to a particular business, such as "customer" or "purchase order." The value of a canonical data model for a service-oriented architecture (SOA) comes from its abstraction from all specific services and applications. Each sending and receiving data source or data service maps to the common information model independently for data transformation and reconciliation. When a data service or source changes, SOA developers only need to update one mapping.
This one-to-one mapping per data service or source simplifies semantic integration because the main alternative is custom coding point-to-point data transformations between each pair of data services or sources. This adds significantly to IT complexity. Not only is it extremely labor-intensive to add and change data sources and data services, but when a change is made anywhere, it's difficult to understand the impact on all related services and sources, creating vulnerability to system breakage.
Progress Software released the results of a study it commissioned with Forrester Consulting revealing data integration efforts are increasing across most major industries as a result of the demand for real-time globally accessible data. According to findings, information technology (IT) professionals are severely challenged in keeping pace - still mired in manual processes and ad hoc fixes. SOA is growing quickly and the survey results identified service oriented architectures (SOAs) as the emerging solution across enterprises to achieve successful end-to-end data management and integration results. Learn more and read the SOA survey, Addressing Data Integration Challenges with SOA. |
Improve Data Integrity with a Canonical Data Model and Progress Artix
Progress Artix provides proven technology that can help organizations normalize data inconsistencies and define a canonical data model. Once defined, data sent from other systems can be transformed and validated with the common data model in real-time, rather than defining point-to-point transformations and validations for every system. With Artix, organizations can:
- Enhance developer efficiency. Using model-driven code generation, Artix helps eliminate error-prone, costly manual development and ongoing maintenance of data relationships.
- Reduce operational costs. Using a common data model, Artix lowers costs by reducing the amount of custom coding and point-to-point transformations.
- Improve data integrity. Using real-time SOA data services, Artix offers data validation and semantic mediation of in-flight messages or bulk data sent between systems or partners.
Learn more about Artix Data Services >
Leveraging Canonical Data Models for Faster Integration with Progress DataXtend
Progress® DataXtend® Semantic Integrator (SI) enables business analysts and developers to use a canonical or common data model to deliver critical functionality to semantically integrate systems across an SOA in record time. Specifically, working within the Progress® DataXtend™ SI Designer™, users can import existing common models as well as schemas for data sources and data services. Here, with graphical tools, including drag-and-drop functionality, they can enrich these models and schemas with computations, data transformation and validation rules and mappings (of the schemas to the model)—usually without writing code. These are captured as metadata and managed centrally along with the resulting Exchange Model.
Evaluate DataXtend SI
DataXtend Semantic Integrator (SI) is a standards-based, model-driven visual design tool and distributed runtime application that operates within existing enterprise application integration (EAI) frameworks to ensure the real-time scalability of SOA integration. Semantic integration with DataXtend SI provides advantages for productivity, governance, and performance as corporations scale their SOA projects. Take DataXtend SI for a test drive today. |
In runtime, the Progress® DataXtend™ SI Engine™ uses the Exchange Model to dynamically convert and validate data points before submitting them to receiving systems. In particular, it ensures the business integrity of the data: that is, not only that the data format is correct but that the data is valid based on the rules for users and applications that require it.
Building on the Benefits of Canonical Data Models
Progress technology delivers other productivity benefits in addition to reducing the number of mappings by using a canonical data model. In particular, our products will:
- Automate and manage operations central to ensuring data quality across data exchanges. These include transformations, such as schema mappings; aggregation, merging and reconciling disparate forms of the same data; validation, checking for internal data consistency; and business rule enforcement.
- Expedite and simplify semantic integration over the SOA lifecycle. Within the design environment, developers can rapidly test, debug, and modify models—and see the impact of any proposed change.
- Allow developers to change business rules or replace components without recoding or taking systems offline.
If your industry is focused on telecommunications, you will also be interested in Progress® DataXtend™ SID Model Browser. The TM Forum's Shared Information/Data (SID) improves data mediation in OSS/BSS integration projects by defining a canonical data model. Using the SID can help you realize business benefits that create value for your customers and directly affect your bottom line. But canonical models the size of the SID can be challenging to absorb. To help you understand this industry standard, we created the DataXtend SID Model Browser.
In addition to offering solutions for supporting a canonical data model based on industry standards, Progress Software also delivers the industry's first enterprise service bus, and SOA management, data replication, BPEL orchestration, and other SOA infrastructure technologies.
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