Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services

Chapter Nineteen. Leveraging Ontologies and Application Integration

It's a judgment call as to the proper placement of this chapter in the book. It clearly could go with our earlier discussion of metadata. However, this is a fairly new topic in the context of application integration—indeed, an advanced topic. Thus, here is where it stays.

Truth be told, ontologies are nothing new, and the use of ontologies within the notion of application integration is nothing new either, no matter if we called it ontology or something different. However, the recognition that ontologies play a major role in the logical understanding of the problem domain—if not the solutions, as well—is something new. If we understand the ontologies, then we clearly understand ...