Federated management of distributed data and services

Over a period of 10 years, the FAW has developed a Software Engineering Paradigm to develop distributed data, applications, and processes for heterogeneous environments. This paradigm is supported by a set of tools that has been implemented at FAW and is now commercialized via the spin-off company KNOWING. These tools and the Software Engineering Paradigm are forming a platform for enterprise integration as specified, e.g., in the definition of CIMOSA. Enterprise integration hereby means the strategic aim to continuously develop one productive enterprise data and function model. This is a key for an enterprise-wide information and resource management. It should be based on a solution for enabling the transparent access to all available data and functions in distributed heterogeneous environments via a logical point of information. In this paper, the implementation concept for so-called information logistic services - forming the logical point of information - will be described. These services are implementing the information entity in the framework of an integrating infrastructure as it has been described by CIMOSA. Besides the details of its implementation, a positioning in an overall implementation architecture for enterprise integration, as it has been developed and implemented at FAW, will be explained as well. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.