Data integration involves taking data from two or more databases, sometimes within the same company, and producing meaningful reports from the merged data. Data integration can be thought of as one of the holy grails of IT, and at the same time a major headache for most IT professionals. The vast majority of databases used in corporations are proprietary in nature, designed by the supplier to suit the needs of their querying software, not for integration with other data systems, leading to difficulties creating a [...]

Data integration is the process by which data and information from disparate and often incompatible  sources is brought together by transforming the data into a single unified view, usually within a new application that offers additional reporting designed for users outside of the usual user base of the source data. Data integration also goes under the name Enterprise Information Integration (EII). The process of data integration is complex and over time has evolved into very sophisticated tools available as standalone software from third party vendors, [...]