Jonathan Robie

Most businesses have an urgent need for up-to-date, accurate information based on data from multiple data sources. It would be much easier if all your data were stored in one database so it can be queried as a whole, but this is rarely practical. In the real world, data integration is required. You need a simple, efficient way to query data found in various data sources. Suppose you use information about customers in your Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Your company might use an external CRM system like salesforce.com for leads and customer data, an internal ERP system like PeopleSoft for processing orders, a dedicated software solution to track technical support calls, and one or more databases to store customer information not captured by these other systems. Each... (more)

Why We Need XML Query Standards

Despite a shortage of sophisticated XML query tools, Internet demands have forced companies to present their data in various formats. In one sense little has changed, as SQL queries have long been used to combine data for different purposes and audiences. Now however, the output is XML, and while the tools used to generate or consume XML may be different, the structure is similar to stru... (more)