Monday, February 09, 2004

Application Awareness

According to the Evaluator Group, lifecycle data management needs application awareness. In other words, data services don't operate well in a vacuum.

This often applies to information services as well. If someone asks whether it is going to rain at a particular location on a particular day, the weather forecaster can respond more accurately and appropriately to this query if he knows the purpose of the enquiry - do you want to run a garden fete or land a helicopter full of VIPs?

This is supported by the concept of Differentiated Service. The context helps to determine the semantics and expectations of the enquiry.