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DEWS: Delivering Environmental Web Services. Jon Blower Reading e-Science Centre Environmental Systems Science Centre University of Reading on behalf of DEWS partners. DEWS overview. £2.2M DTI Inter-Enterprise Computing Project
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DEWS: Delivering Environmental Web Services Jon Blower Reading e-Science Centre Environmental Systems Science Centre University of Reading on behalf of DEWS partners
DEWS overview • £2.2M DTI Inter-Enterprise Computing Project • Aims: to build a functional demonstrator of a system that delivers time-critical, high-volume environmental information to consumers • Two disparate case studies: marine and healthcare • To evaluate the suitability of a Web Services architecture for interoperability, scalability, high-volume data exchange, security and reliability • To bring together technologists, data producers, service providers and end users • To promote early adoption
What is a Web Service? • Platform-independent means for machine-to-machine communication • Roughly equivalent to a subroutine in traditional programming • distributed applications are made by composing Web Services • Widely adopted in industry • Most of Amazon’s business is through Web Services interface, not website • But standards are still in flux • and tooling is not always as good as it could be
Health stream overview • Aim is to support NHS decision-makers by providing information for predicting occurrences of COPD • Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease • Mainly affects smokers and is incurable • WHO estimates that COPD kills as many people as AIDS • Exacerbated by weather conditions, e.g. low temperatures • DEWS collects data from many sources (inc. NHS Direct, GPs, NWP models) and exposes data via Web Services • Web Portal interface displays tailored graphical data to decision-makers
Marine stream overview • DEWS delivers NCOF data for search-and-rescue, oil spill mitigation etc • Much higher volume than the health stream • BMT are the “test client” • SARIS model driven by current and wind forecasts • Many other clients can connect too • e.g. via the DEWS Portal
Key technologies • Interoperability is guaranteed through adoption of international standards for geospatial data • Server designs from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) • Marine data provided in CF-compliant NetCDF • Marine stream uses: • Web Coverage Server for marine data • Web Map Server for marine images • Health stream uses Web Feature Server • Allows overlaying and intercomparison of DEWS data with other data sources
Security • DEWS uses the security model of the NERC Data Grid • DEWS will adapt for WS-Security standard • Clients only allowed to access data if their role is recognised • more scalable (and legal!) than identity-based security • All access to DEWS systems will be logged and audited • allowing for easy production of monthly invoices
Demonstrations DEWS marine online visualization DEWS Web Portal
What does this mean for NCOF? • DEWS will provide: • a software stack that can be used to serve NCOF data securely to clients • An interactive online visualization system • But: • DEWS will not produce an operational system • DEWS focuses on server-side systems, not customer-facing systems • NCOF PSRE project will enable customer-facing components (esp. website) to be further developed