<s>
Enterprise	B-General_Concept
information	I-General_Concept
integration	I-General_Concept
(	O
EII	O
)	O
is	O
the	O
ability	O
to	O
support	O
an	O
unified	O
view	O
of	O
data	O
and	O
information	O
for	O
an	O
entire	O
organization	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
a	O
data	B-General_Concept
virtualization	I-General_Concept
application	O
of	O
EII	O
,	O
a	O
process	O
of	O
information	B-General_Concept
integration	I-General_Concept
,	O
using	O
data	B-Application
abstraction	I-Application
to	O
provide	O
a	O
unified	O
interface	O
(	O
known	O
as	O
uniform	B-General_Concept
data	I-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
)	O
for	O
viewing	O
all	O
the	O
data	O
within	O
an	O
organization	O
,	O
and	O
a	O
single	O
set	O
of	O
structures	O
and	O
naming	O
conventions	O
(	O
known	O
as	O
uniform	B-General_Concept
information	I-General_Concept
representation	I-General_Concept
)	O
to	O
represent	O
this	O
data	O
;	O
the	O
goal	O
of	O
EII	O
is	O
to	O
get	O
a	O
large	O
set	O
of	O
heterogeneous	O
data	O
sources	O
to	O
appear	O
to	O
a	O
user	O
or	O
system	O
as	O
a	O
single	O
,	O
homogeneous	O
data	O
source	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Data	O
within	O
an	O
enterprise	O
can	O
be	O
stored	O
in	O
heterogeneous	O
formats	O
,	O
including	O
relational	B-Application
databases	I-Application
(	O
which	O
themselves	O
come	O
in	O
a	O
large	O
number	O
of	O
varieties	O
)	O
,	O
text	O
files	O
,	O
XML	B-Protocol
files	O
,	O
spreadsheets	B-Application
and	O
a	O
variety	O
of	O
proprietary	O
storage	B-General_Concept
methods	O
,	O
each	O
with	O
their	O
own	O
indexing	O
and	O
data	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
methods	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Standardized	O
data	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
APIs	B-Application
have	O
emerged	O
that	O
offer	O
a	O
specific	O
set	O
of	O
commands	O
to	O
retrieve	O
and	O
modify	O
data	O
from	O
a	O
generic	O
data	O
source	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Many	O
applications	O
exist	O
that	O
implement	O
these	O
APIs	B-Application
 '	O
commands	O
across	O
various	O
data	O
sources	O
,	O
most	O
notably	O
relational	B-Application
databases	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Such	O
APIs	B-Application
include	O
ODBC	B-Application
,	O
JDBC	B-Language
,	O
XQJ	B-Language
,	O
OLE	B-Language
DB	I-Language
,	O
and	O
more	O
recently	O
ADO.NET	B-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
also	O
standard	O
formats	O
for	O
representing	O
data	O
within	O
a	O
file	O
that	O
are	O
very	O
important	O
to	O
information	B-General_Concept
integration	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
best-known	O
of	O
these	O
is	O
XML	B-Protocol
,	O
which	O
has	O
emerged	O
as	O
a	O
standard	O
universal	O
representation	O
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
also	O
more	O
specific	O
XML	B-Protocol
"	O
grammars	O
"	O
defined	O
for	O
specific	O
types	O
of	O
data	O
such	O
as	O
Geography	O
Markup	O
Language	O
for	O
expressing	O
geographical	O
features	O
and	O
Directory	B-General_Concept
Service	I-General_Concept
Markup	I-General_Concept
Language	I-General_Concept
for	O
holding	O
directory-style	O
information	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
addition	O
,	O
non-XML	O
standard	O
formats	O
exist	O
such	O
as	O
iCalendar	O
for	O
representing	O
calendar	O
information	O
and	O
vCard	O
for	O
business	O
card	O
information	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Enterprise	B-General_Concept
Information	I-General_Concept
Integration	I-General_Concept
(	O
EII	O
)	O
applies	O
data	B-General_Concept
integration	I-General_Concept
commercially	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Despite	O
the	O
theoretical	O
problems	O
described	O
above	O
,	O
the	O
private	O
sector	O
shows	O
more	O
concern	O
with	O
the	O
problems	O
of	O
data	B-General_Concept
integration	I-General_Concept
as	O
a	O
viable	O
product	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Therefore	O
,	O
data	B-General_Concept
virtualization	I-General_Concept
as	O
well	O
as	O
data	B-General_Concept
federation	I-General_Concept
depends	O
upon	O
accidental	O
data	O
commonality	O
to	O
support	O
combining	O
data	O
and	O
information	O
from	O
disparate	O
data	O
sets	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
recast	O
databases	O
provide	O
designed	O
data	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
paths	O
with	O
data	O
value	O
commonality	O
across	O
databases	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Handling	O
higher-order	O
information	O
Analysts	O
experience	O
difficulty	O
—	O
even	O
with	O
a	O
functioning	O
information	B-General_Concept
integration	I-General_Concept
system	O
—	O
in	O
determining	O
whether	O
the	O
sources	O
in	O
the	O
database	O
will	O
satisfy	O
a	O
given	O
application	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
EII	O
products	O
enable	O
loose	B-Application
coupling	I-Application
between	O
homogeneous-data	O
consuming	O
client	O
applications	O
and	O
services	O
and	O
heterogeneous-data	O
stores	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Such	O
client	O
applications	O
and	O
services	O
include	O
Desktop	O
Productivity	O
Tools	O
(	O
spreadsheets	B-Application
,	O
word	B-General_Concept
processors	I-General_Concept
,	O
presentation	O
software	O
,	O
etc	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
)	O
,	O
development	O
environments	O
and	O
frameworks	O
(	O
Java	B-Language
EE	I-Language
,	O
.NET	O
,	O
Mono	B-Application
,	O
SOAP	B-Application
or	O
RESTful	B-Protocol
Web	I-Protocol
services	I-Protocol
,	O
etc	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
)	O
,	O
business	B-General_Concept
intelligence	I-General_Concept
(	O
BI	O
)	O
,	O
business	B-Application
activity	I-Application
monitoring	I-Application
(	O
BAM	O
)	O
software	O
,	O
enterprise	O
resource	O
planning	O
(	O
ERP	O
)	O
,	O
Customer	O
relationship	O
management	O
(	O
CRM	O
)	O
,	O
business	O
process	O
management	O
(	O
BPM	O
and/or	O
BPEL	O
)	O
Software	O
,	O
and	O
web	O
content	O
management	O
(	O
CMS	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
