Page 197 - Data Architecture

Chapter 5.1: The Siloed Application Environment
applications. But a closer examination shows that it would be a very misleading thing to
do to merely start exchanging dollar values between the different applications. The data
are not the same at all.

Unfortunately, the differences between applications run much more deeply than a
conversion of money. There are many other reasons why merely transferring data values
from one application to the next is a dangerous thing to do.

Older technology can become an issue. When an application is built, it is built in the
technology that is available at the time of development. Unfortunately, the siloed

application often times outlives the technology it was built in. Because a siloed
application is extremely difficult to change, the siloed application becomes “trapped”
inside older technology.

There are then many reasons why siloed applications in corporations become an ever-
increasing vexation.

Building Siloed Applications

So, exactly how did corporations get into the dilemma that they find themselves in when

it comes to their siloed applications?

The sojourn to siloed systems starts innocently enough. Simply stated, developers were

building applications in what they thought were the best methods and approaches for
development at the time.

One of the fundamentals of application development was the tenet that applications are
to be built from end user requirements. That notion sounds simple and straightforward.
But time has shown that this simplistic approach has some major shortcomings.

Fig. 5.1.4 depicts this simple notion—that applications are built based on end user
requirements.

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