Patent ID: 8819806

Claim:
A system, comprising: an integration portal that includes at least one computing device and selectively provides a user access to data associated with one or more applications among a plurality of applications, the plurality of applications including a first set of applications accessible through a first portal and not accessible through a second portal and a second set of applications accessible through the second portal and not accessible through the first portal, the one or more applications being accessible through the integration portal regardless of whether the one or more applications are included in the first set of applications or the second set of applications, the one or more applications being remote from the user and the integration portal, and the data being stored in another computing device that is remote from the user and the integration portal and that is associated with the one or more applications; and a data access layer that is included in the integration portal and that includes: a map associating the user with a permission and further associating a combination of the user and the permission with a data entity specifying a set of data within the data associated with the one or more applications; wherein the integration portal is configured to use the map to determine that the user is permitted to access the set of data specified by the data entity; and wherein the map included in the data access layer in the integration portal is synchronized with access information maintained in a remote data store such that the map included in the data access layer in the integration portal represents the access information in the remote data store, the access information in the remote data store specifying the user, the set of data, and that the user has permission to access the set of data.