Adaptive Information Improving Business Through Semantic Interoperability, Grid Computing, and Enterprise Integration

Appendix A. Vendor Profiles, Tools, and Scorecards

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Current tool maturity is acceptable for most problem cases.

• To become widely popular, greater usability must be built into these tools.

• Support for collaborative design environments is still weak.

• Complete end-to-end interoperability support is nonexistent in any tool suite.

• A custom-tailored scorecard should be leveraged to choose vendors.

Although the authors don't expect this appendix to remain accurate indefinitely (business and technology change far too rapidly for that), it should provide an accurate snapshot of commercially available platform capabilities of leading semantic vendors in the 2004 and 2005 fiscal years. Furthermore, this appendix goes beyond a typical vendor overview and provides both a structure and set of metrics for measuring tool set strengths and weaknesses into the future.

The appendix is organized in four main parts. First, a summary of vendor positions and tool highlights is presented. Second, an overview of the ontology tool market and lifecycle requirements is provided. Third, interoperability platforms are examined and their design and run time capabilities are compared. Finally, a sample set of metrics for vendor comparison is provided to assist the tool buyer.

As with all statements about proprietary tools in this book, the authors recommend that the reader contact the tool vendor for any clarification or detailed specifications.

VENDOR OVERVIEWS

Two groups of enterprising vendors are paving ...