Developing a Visualization Portal for NOAA Data: Part 2 - Lessons Learned in Open Source

When the development of NOAA View began in 2012, the architecture was designed using open source software: MySQL database, GeoServer, and OpenLayers. These components were chosen for their flexibility, cost, and performance benefits. However, the developers at the NOAA Visualization Lab quickly learned the constraints of such a system design - most importantly the time investment required to develop new, custom capabilities such as analytical tools or advanced displays, including using Cesium. Since then, the system has been transitioned to an entirely Esri based architecture, leveraging ArcServer and the myriad of standard add-ons that Esri provides out of the box. This talk will focus on the lessons learned, both positive and negative, for each system design, and how the Visualization Lab intends to maximize the capabilities of this new system architecture over the coming months and years.