Designing for interoperability usinga multi-repository approach to E&P data

Nicholas Chart, solution manager, åpos and data management solutions, Paradigm, describes the move away from the holy grail of integration to the more manageable goal of interoperability. In recent years we have seen various attempts to integrate software and databases in the E&P world. The result is a number of widely used heavyweight database systems and associated software packages which are more or less integrated with them. Early on in the evolution of these systems, data management professionals were already starting to say that interoperability is more desirable than integration. While integration is perceived as enabling some packages to work together closely while locking out other packages, thus preventing users from choosing their preferred software tools, interoperability implies that software packages can be used together with maximum effectiveness in each package and minimum connectivity problems between packages. While this facet of interoperability is undoubtedly a vital component of the modern E&P workflow, the real value of interoperability is that it enables oil and gas companies to protect their investment in data by providing flexible access to multiple repositories, for both new and existing data.