The data-centric approach puts premier importance on data and its presentation, stressing the need to design applications around the database structure and the users' needs. This customized approach costs more, but it gives users more of what they want. Oracle Corp. databases, for example, are data-centric, especially Oracle's Internet Application Server and Internet Developer Suite. But often such apps can't deal with the multiple personalities of data feeds. Microsoft is slowly changing, but the legacy remains strong.
Trend is app-centered Neither approach is wrong.
The choice depends on your users' needs and budget. Commercial software costs less. Standardization is valuable to a far-flung operation. What's changing this either-or scenario is the flood of new data. Data collection from conventional sources is augmented by data culled from Web forms and from field entries in handheld computers and digital phones.