Information system architecture to support transparent access to distributed, heterogeneous data sources

摘要

Quality situation assessment and decision making require access to multiple sources of data and information. Insufficient accessibility to data exists for many large corporations and Government agencies. By utilizing current advances in computer technology, today's situation analyst's have a wealth of information at their disposal. There are many potential solutions to the information accessibility problem using today's technology. The United States Department of Energy (US-DOE) faced this problem when dealing with one class of problem in the US. The result of their efforts has been the creation of the Tank Waste Information Network System -- TWINS. The TWINS solution combines many technologies to address problems in several areas such as User Interfaces, Transparent Access to Multiple Data Sources, and Integrated Data Access. Data related to the complex is currently distributed throughout several US-DOE installations. Over time, each installation has adopted their own set of standards as related to information management. Heterogeneous hardware and software platforms exist both across the complex and within a single installation. Standards for information management vary between US-DOE mission areas within installations. These factors contribute to the complexity of accessing information in a manner that enhances the performance and decision making process of the analysts. This paper presents one approach taken by the DOE to resolve the problem of distributed, heterogeneous, multi-media information management for the HLW Tank complex. The information system architecture developed for the DOE by the TWINS effort is one that is adaptable to other problem domains and uses.