Data Integration Architecture Vendors   'Data Integration' is the process of retrieving and consolidating data from various sources. It includes validation, removing errors in source data, and converting to a target format. This table lists some options and some Products. Please let me have any recommendations or comments. OPTIONS for IMPLEMENTATION of the ARCHITECTURE Price Repository Data Integration ETL On Demand Data Warehouse GCDM BI SOA $$$$$ ASG Rochade   Ascential       Business Objects Polar Lake $$$$$ Platinum MetaMatrix See Beyond   Kalido Kalido   Progress $$$     Informatica   SAS       $ Paper Access and ODBC.             ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTS Category Product Pilot ? Entry Level Average Cost Maximum Cost Comment Bus. Intelligence Business Objects ?       Provides valuable 'User View' of data     Customer Hub Siebel         'Universal Customer Master' offers Dashboards, KPIs, Alerts and Metrics   Data Integration Avaki ?       Provides "Data Service Layer" Data Integration MetaMatrix ?       Provides Virtual Data Layer, 'Model-Driven Architecture', and supports Business Objects. Supports standards - OMG's MOF, XMI and CWM. Data Integration PolarLake ?       Database Integrator - 'Powerful graphical mapping and transformation Tools'.   Data Migration Ascential No       Involves Data Movement Data Migration Informatica No       Involves Data Movement. Offers SOA, Web Services, a MetaData Exchange and support for XML. Data Migration SAS No       Involves Data Movement Data Migration See Beyond No       Involves Data Movement. Offers a Repository, Global Customer Management,J2EE compliant and Web services-based approach, an Enterprise Service Bus,Portals and executive dashboards that track key performance indicators and provide exception alerting for proactive business actions.   Data Modelling Sapphir No       Provides Models for Siebel, SAP and other ERPS.   Data Warehouse Kalido         Unique Dynamic Data Warehouse Data Warehouse SAS             Repository ASG Rochade No         Repository CA Platinum No           Svc Oriented Arch Amber Point Yes       Downloadable Trial available Svc Oriented Arch Polar Lake No         Relevant Industry Standards include :- CWM = Common Warehouse MetaModel MOF = Meta-Object Facility from the OMG(Object Managament Group) XMI = XML Interchange A series of Phases is shown below with increasing power and cost... Entry Level This provides a fixed solution for a Pilot Project at minimum cost. Microsoft Access and ODBC. Mid-Point Level This offers flexibility in the Data Integration Layer. Metamatrix Saphir Data Modelling for SAP and Siebel. The Top-End A higher-price solution - including a Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence As above plus Informatica or SeeBeyond Kalido Business Objects The Top-End ++ The highest-price solution - providing a State-of-the-Art Solution. As above plus Publish and Subscribe Service oriented Architecture Barry Williams DatabaseAnswers.org