Current data management solutions are largely optimized for
intra-enterprise, client-server applications. They depend on
predictability, predefined structure, and universal administrative
control, and cannot easily cope with change and lack of
structure. However, modern e-commerce applications are dynamic,
unpredictable, organic and decentralized, and require
adaptability. eXtensible Data Management (XDM) is a new approach that
enables rapid development and deployment of networked, data-intensive
services by providing semantically-rich, high-performance middle-tier
data management, and allows heterogeneous data from different sources
to be accessed in a uniform manner. Here, we discuss how middle tier
extensible data management can benefit an enterprise, and present
technical details and example from the Index Fabric, an XDM engine we
have implemented.