New use case on database migration

Everyone,

   I have a distinct memory of some people noting that a standard was not
really needed in this area. Therefore, I have added a brief use-case
(it does not really fit the others, since it does not make requirements
on expressivity) that explains the case for a standard in this area.
However, I do think it helps motivate the need for a standard in this
area.  I am interested in any comments on this.  The use-case has been
added to the wiki [1]


== Migration Use Case ==

One of the reasons for open standards is to allow easy migration between
different systems. Just as a single web-page in HTML can be viewed both my
two different web browsers from different vendors, a single relational
data to RDF mapping standard  should allow a user from one database to
expose their data as RDF and then, when they export their data to another
database, allow the newly imported data to be queried as RDF without
changing the mapping file.  For example, imagine that a database
administrator is working on exposing weather data as linked data to be
found and consumed by other applications. At first, this weather data is
stored in a light-weight database (such as MySQL). However, as more and
more weather data is collected, and more and more users access this RDF,
the light-weight database has difficulty scaling, providing problems for
users. Therefore, the database administrator migrates their database to a
more heavy-weight database (such as Oracle Database 11g). However, the
database administrator do not want to have re-create the ability to view
the data as RDF using a vendor-specific mapping file, but instead wants to
seamlessly migrate the view of their data as RDF. A standardized mapping
between relational data and RDF allows the database administrator to
migrate the view of their data as RDF across databases, allowing the
vendors to compete on functionality and features rather than forcing
database administrators to rewrite their entire relational data to RDF
mapping when they want to migrate their data from one database to another.

[1]
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/rdb2rdf/wiki/Draft_of_Use_Cases#Migration_Use_Case

Received on Tuesday, 20 April 2010 04:58:24 UTC