There was an interesting panel session at the 2009 PNEC Data Integration Conference last month full report on page 6 of this issue on the topic of ‘standard data models.’ Twenty years ago or thereabouts the standard data model was all the rage and very considerable amounts of industry money were poured into efforts such as Epicentre, Project Discovery, and POSCCaesar. A smaller amount of money but a lot of time was also put into PPDM. What did the panel have to say on the subject in 2009?The panel comprised cochairs Cora Poché Shell and Mark McDermott ConocoPhillips Alaska along with Rusty Foreman BP, Mike Ryan ExxonMobil and Mike Underwood Chevron McDermott stated that ConocoPhillips is trying to globalize support and is getting interested in data models and integration. But the panel’s chosen topic, the ‘standard data model’ SDM has failed to gain traction. It has proved hard to overcome the lack of business sponsorship and recognition of the importance of the SDM. There are tradeoffs between short term cost and long term benefits and interoperability maybe in users’ interests but not necessarily in the interest of a vendor Perhaps a data integration layer is the way forward—anyway, ‘you need to put in your own effort.’Poché’s field is seismic data management. Shell’s SDM built around Landmark’s CDS solution has been implemented across several business units and makes for easier support. Cross discipline data integration is easier with the SDM. The issues are cost and complexity.

Website: http://www.oilit.com/