Value of Ontologies

While there is no free lunch here, the use of the ontologies concept within modern application integration techniques and technologies seems to be a good match. Indeed, today we are already leveraging certain aspects of ontologies within most application integration projects, whether we understand the concept or not. The value here is to recognize ontologies as a concept that formalizes the management and integration of information, services, and processes...formalizing something we are already doing informally.

The real significance of ontologies leveraging the reusable aspects is within vertical domains where the use of common metadata, services, and processes has the most worth. Once we get semantics under control within vertical systems (more often, a collection of systems), application integration or linking a common set of semantics to back-end systems won't be as daunting as this process is today. What's more, the application of standards such as Semantic Web and OWL will make ontologies that much more attractive.