Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: EII Discussion

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: Set Disruptors ON FULL argues the case for Enterprise Information Integration, a concept that has been around for awhile, and actually supported in one way or another by every database vendor. Some call it "federating" data and the like. Anyway a quote like this is good to get one's attention:

EII is going to force data warehousing out of its comfort zone by pushing the envelope with respect to what can be done in today's environment with closing the loop, federating queries, expanding the breadth of information available, and tackling latency. This is EII's disruptive potential; it forces us to question our restrictive view of what data warehousing can and should do.

It's always been alot of hype (mostly because the speed is atrocious), but I imagine with increased CPU and network speeds it may be feasible at some point. It's place will be much more toward the ODS than the data warehouse though.

The only real world applications I think of actually seeing these techniques in are for some reporting suites... for example Business Objects' "universe" is a textbook example for all intents and purposes.