State of industry re data sources

Popping up a level to get beyond a single and centrally managed data store, I started doing a little googling related to data sources, what standards exist for specifying them, and what is emerging. I'm taking a short-cut at the outset here by asking for links others think are useful. I thought the grid computing stuff would help with that, but I haven't yet found the right material (and I'm feeling lazy so thought you folks could help?)

In particular:

1. "Direct" access -- What data source specifications are emerging for access to any source of structured data, whether SQL-accessible or not, using Java or Microsoft tools or not? (for example jdbc:// doesn't fit the bill as it is both SQL and Java specific but might be a subset of a more generalized URI for data sources?)
2. "Service" access -- Is there any standard spec for web services, Jini services, or various other grid services, etc for what a general service for a data source might look like (perhaps along with the discovery of such services)? [That was a vague question, I know.]

I'm really looking for what is coming next after the rather standardized approach to specifying ODBC data sources, particularly anything that is SQL-independent (just thinking about those true RDBMS's on the horizon;-). I would think that one service once a data source service is discovered would be to ask the service what API's are available for querying the data (SQL, as one example).

Any good URLs to point me to? Thanks in advance. --dawn Received on Sat May 08 2004 - 14:15:16 CDT