Operationalizing ArcServer for NOAA's Integrated Dissemination Program

NOAA stood up the Integrated Dissemination Program (IDP) Geographic Information System (GIS) infrastructure recognizing a hybrid solution of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) and Open Source technologies would provide the most effective environment for satisfying requirements to deliver 7/24 geospatial web services to NOAA stakeholders. ESRI, the GIS software industry lead, was the choice for the COTS solution and was chosen for the initial implementation of Web Map Services (WMS). NOAA's IDP includes a LINUX operating system, complex infrastructure design of load balanced and redundant virtual machines in Maryland and Colorado, rapidly updating data, scientific data formats, and custom solutions for data and applications migrating to ESRI technology. This multi-faceted system proved a challenge to implement as an NWS operational system.

An integrated team of ESRI software experts and NOAA geospatial, data, and IT system experts was assembled to find a path to successful implementation. Standard project management principles were employed to track schedule and associated risks. The integrated team discovered and tracked various issues including reliability concerns associated with enabling image services, custom scripts, updating data in near-real time, tuning database design, and how to best support a scalable and redundant system.

This presentation will discuss the collaborative efforts of the government and private sector to refine technology, to create a secure dynamic geospatial system delivering scientific data as geospatial web services 7/24.