We've gotten a lot of interest from readers on a story we ran recently on the topic of Enterprise Information Integration. "EII," like most technology-related acronyms, evokes as much confusion as it does enthusiasm. That's often the fault of software vendors (and technology writers) who ramble on about the three-letter abbreviation-of-the-moment without providing detailed explanations, in straightforward language, of what it is they're talking about exactly. Rajan Chandras's "EII: Information On Demand," an Intelligent Enterprise story, is an exception to this rule. Chandras provides a clear explanation of what EII is, and how it fits into the larger business intelligence equation.

As the story outlines, EII diverges from most traditional ETL-oriented data warehousing in that it accesses, rather than moves, the information that will be examined using analytics tools. "EII uses virtualization to present clients with a view of one consolidated information resource, hiding the federated query system that's actually drawing from multiple data resources," says Chandras, of New York-based CSC Consulting. I think you'll find the story's many deeper details very helpful if EII is something your organization is considering, or if it's merely something that evokes your curiosity.

As with all topics BI-related, we're interested in your feedback on the question of enterprise information integration. What are the chances that EII will replace traditional data warehouse and ETL procedures at your company? Let us know what you think about EII in our new Business Intelligence Pipeline poll.