A Middleware Architecture for Supporting Adaptable Replication of Enterprise Application Data

Enterprise-wide data replication improves availability, performance, fault-tolerance and dependability of database services within and between different subunits in medium and large enterprises. The overhead of consistency management of replicated data can be tamed by built-in DBMS functionality. Different kinds of applications, e.g., update-intensive online transaction processing, cyclical updates for data warehousing, knowledge sharing of repository data, and so on, have different requirements for the availability, up-to-dateness and consistency of replicated data. Thus, replication strategies should be adaptable to the specific requirements of diverse enterprise applications. We describe a middleware for enterprise-wide data replication. It maintains meta data for several protocols, so that the replication strategy can be adapted on the fly to the actual needs of an application.