While good database design is always necessary, the value of good design is reinforced by such endeavors as service-oriented architecture. The semantics-laden engineering of service-oriented tactics used in creating solutions melds seamlessly into the semantics-laden world of data modeling. Although one aspect does not necessarily build on top of the other, each works as part of a team in braiding solutions that grow in usefulness as they emerge. The processes surface as a method to further define the meaning of an object, and the object serves as a harbinger of the processes that must exist. Business rules much more advanced than today's simple constraints may one day reside within the database itself as a built-in function of a some future DBMS. Therefore, data architects should never try to wall themselves behind a veneer of thinking only in terms of data without a thought regarding the processes that touch the data. As a database designer, working within projects that use service-oriented architecture approaches can be exhilarating.
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