Agree with this 100%. In the past the way different applications integrate with each other was through sharing the same database tables. Hence the need to keep

Agree with this 100%. In the past the way different applications integrate with each other was through sharing the same database tables. Hence the need to keep the schema synchronized across multiple applications. Nowadays applications should integrate through well-defined APIs and service interfaces. See this Martin Fowler short essay on database styles: http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DatabaseStyles.html http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DatabaseStyles.html