A federated virtual enterprise (VE) of partners creating a federated VE of systems

A virtual enterprise (VE) of an enterprise of partners (EP) can choose to formulate a federation of enterprise information systems (a VE of systems). This is a realistic approach that can be taken to realize effective information sharing across heterogeneous domains. To realize a federated system of systems requires a VE of partners to manage and define the federated system (of systems), and this federated system is itself a VE. This paper discusses the needed systems engineering activities, supporting technologies and information sharing strategies for both the organizational VE and the federated system VE. The information and data sharing strategies discussed include STEP, the World Wide Web, integrated databases, brokers, and others.