Open Data: How the RDBMS Is the Key That Unlocks Proprietary Applications
by Robert M. Lefkowitz, VP, Research and Executive Education
Presented August 02, 2005 at the Open Source Convention
No matter how closed the application, if the information it manipulates is stored in a relational database, the structure of the data, and much of the business logic, is exposed — and much (if not all) of the application functionality around modifying or displaying that data can be hacked.
A significant component of what development groups in large corporate IT departments and system integrators do is exactly that — hacking closed source applications by exploiting accessibility to the underlying data store. They don´t, however, usually refer to it as “hacking.”
This talk examines some of the reasons why enterprises are interested in this fissure of closed systems, some case studies, tools and techniques for “cracking” a proprietary application, and the implications for open source adoption in the enterprise.