Patent ID: 7673282

Claim:
An enterprise information unification system comprising: a memory for storing a plurality of components; and a processor for executing the plurality of components, the plurality of components comprising: an information modeler for modeling business entities and their properties as an information model, the information model comprising business constructs, wherein the business constructs include business rules identifying relationships among class properties, wherein the information modeler generates the information model using a plurality of physical data assets as inputs, and wherein the information modeler further comprises: a model simulator for simulating the information model, wherein a test instance generator populates data that simulates actual enterprise data; and a model validator for validating a simulation of the information model; a data rationalizer for generating mappings from the plurality of physical data assets to the information model, the plurality of physical data assets comprising data asset constructs, wherein the data rationalizer describes to which business constructs the data asset constructs relate, and wherein the data rationalizer further comprises: a synchronizer for synchronizing updates to at least one physical data asset of the plurality of physical data assets with the information model; and a data thesaurus for automating tasks of data management based on the mappings, wherein the data thesaurus translates business instructions for the information model into corresponding data processing instructions for the plurality of physical data assets, and wherein the data thesaurus translates the business instructions based on the mappings.