Value of integration in database and service domains

The paper discusses the concept of value of integration in two apparently distant research domains, database and service domains. In the area of virtual database integration, we address the problem of increased utility in an organization resulting from adopting data integration architectures, so to be able to querying an integrated database schema instead a set of local schemas. In the area of service design, we investigate the increased utility resulting from the reuse enabled in a set of production lines from the integration of their local service repositories, that are conceptual representations of services along with is-a and part-of relationships expressed among them. We define a concept of utility and value in a general fashion, and subsequently adapt utility and value to the two analyzed domains. The paper is concluded with real life case studies