Research Directions in Software Engineering, ACM Comp.Surveys,
Vol.27 No.2, June 1995, pages 265-267.
Source.
Keywords mediators, information systems
Information systems can be defined as computing systems which provide information for their customers, often in a decision-support role. They represent a large and increasing fraction of modern computing, slowly eclipsing the effort expended on massive data-processing, cycle-intensive scientific computing, and real-time systems. Planning and other decision-making tasks require information from diverse sources, as databases, reference systems, data obtained in real-time from sensors, and analyses projecting trends over the totality. Construction of information systems is being aided today by the many tools being provided by vendors of client-server systems. A furious race is underway to establish standards, since adoption will direct investment by customers. A logical evolution of client-server architecture provided by mediated architectures, where an extra software layer is inserted between the client and the server. Mediators are domain-specialized so that their maintenance can be focused. A number of open research questions are given.