Ontology Databases

Ontology Databases

Ontology databases are powerful tools for modeling the data structures to be implemented in systems like CCMS, DMS, PIM and others. Technically, an Ontology Database is a system specialized on storing hierarchical structures of so-called Classes and Individuals. Classes and Individuals can be assigned named properties and be brought into a graph structure using named relation types. Using these structural elements, data structures of any complexity across systems can be modeled and visualized.

There are only very few Ontology Database systems on the market. The only relevant Open Source solution is ​WebProtégé, and the leading commercial system is Intelligent Views by EMPOLIS. In brief, Intelligent Views offers a broad set of functionality for querying and visualizing the data in the database, compared with ​WebProtégé. However, the license fees are rather high. If visualization functionality is required, we can offer a solution to automatically render diagrams based on configurable filtering and layout rules from ​WebProtégé.

Ontology Databases can be used in various application scenarios. While few companies use Ontology Databases as a permanent knowledge management tool so far, we recommend using an Ontology Database temporarily for complex modeling tasks until the target systems representing the data models are in place. We can set up and host a ​WebProtégé system for you during the modeling phase and, if necessary, teach you how to use it. You can start filling it with data right away.

Other customers permanently set up an Ontology Database for Data Intelligence and Knowledge Management. For this type of application, we can offer product selection consultancy to find out whether you need to invest into a commercial solution or ​WebProtégé is sufficient to fulfill your needs without license fees.

What we can do for you