Glossary · System coordination, integration and orchestration
Identity mapping
Also known as: ID mapping, cross-reference mapping, key mapping
German: Identitätsabbildung
In systems integration, identity mapping is the maintained correspondence between the identifiers that different systems use for the same real-world object, such as a material, machine, order or user, so that records can be matched across systems.
- System integration
In one sentence
Identity mapping keeps track of which identifiers in different systems refer to the same material, machine, order or user.
Example
The machine known as “FL-03” in the MES is asset 100245 in the maintenance system and device ns=2;s=Filler3 in the OPC UA server; an identity mapping table links all three.
How it applies
- Integration: Without reliable identity mapping, integrated data is joined wrongly or not at all. Decide which system issues the master identifier and maintain the mapping as governed data, not in scattered spreadsheets.
- Semantics: Globally unique identifiers such as IRIs, used in knowledge graphs and product information, reduce the need for mappings but rarely remove it in existing landscapes.
- Documentation: Documentation, spare-parts lists and HMIs should use identifiers that can be traced through the mapping. Technical documentation linked to assets, for example via iiRDS metadata, depends on these identifiers being stable.
Identity mapping vs. data mapping
Data mapping relates fields and structures between systems. Identity mapping relates individual records, answering which object in system B is the same as this object in system A.