A Meta-Database System Approach for Business Data Sharing among Multiple Target Databases

Today, to share business data among multiple target database systems is a challenging problem, in particular, in cases of companies combinations, business integration and commercial cooperation. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a meta-database system approach to business data sharing. Our new methodology is to build a meta-database system to manage multiple target databases such that end-users can share business data by cross-search over the target databases but each target database can be managed in its own traditional way. Moreover, a new target database can be easily added into the system and an old one can also be easily deleted from the system. The major advantage of this approach is that it can provide the fastest means and lowest cost for business data sharing. Therefore, it is very effective for those business cases that require urgent data sharing. By providing a general-purpose package and related tools, this methodology can be easily applied in various areas. This is the first attempt to solve the business data sharing problem by using a meta-database system.