Wrapping Web Data Islands

EAI, EII, and ETL are the three key abbreviations regarding integration. EAI stands for Enterprise Information Integration and refers to a number of technologies and best practices that help engineers integrate business applications, either to keep their data synchronised or to devise new emerging functionality [Hohpe and Woolf, 2003]. EII stands for Enterprise Information Integration; in this case, the focus is on creating live views of the data a number of applications manipulate [Kambhampati and Knoblock, 2003]. The focus of ETL, which stands for Extract, Transform, and Load, is on off-line data views that are typically used to feed business intelligence processes [Silvers, 2008]. According to a recent report [Weiss, 2005], companies spend $5–20 on integration per dollar spent on devising and implementing new applications. This is the reason why EAI, EII, and ETL are a common hobbyhorse for chief information and technology officers.