Evolution of Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System AWIPS

Evolution of Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS): AWIPS II Migration and Vision for the Next Decade 31 st AMS Conference on Environmental Information Processing Technologies January 6, 2015 Ronla Henry, AWIPS Program Manager NOAA/NWS, Office of Science and Technology

Outline • AWIPS Overview • AWIPS II Migration Project Status • Vision for the future 2

AWIPS Overview What is AWIPS? Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) AWIPS is the NOAA/NWS cornerstone IT system used to ingest, analyze, forecast, & disseminate operational weather data, including time-sensitive, high-impact warnings to protect life and property …. . 24/7/365 3

AWIPS Overview AWIPS Locations 4

AWIPS Overview Scope & IT Footprint • Network Control Facility (NCF) operations – 24/7 Helpdesk, trouble shooting, repair, HW/SW installation support, continuous monitoring, and security patching – AWIPS Communications • Satellite Broadcasting Network (SBN): 30 Mbps satellite broadcast network; primary and backup Master Ground Station plus 167 site ground stations • LAN: IPv 6 ready; Managed by AWIPS NCF • WAN: Private VPN over NOAANet (not part of AWIPS contract) • Hardware Maintenance & Refresh – 172 systems at 150 sites; over 3500 servers and workstations; hundreds of routers, firewalls, storage arrays and network switches • Software Maintenance and Support – 8 million of lines of AWIPS I code under CM control – 8 million lines of AWIPS II code under CM control • Includes 2 million lines of code for legacy applications • Configuration Management – AWIPS Configuration Control Board reviews and authorizes all Requests for Change to the AWIPS IT enterprise 5

AWIPS Overview Evolution of AWIPS • Late 80 s - early 90 s: AWIPS I developed to replace AFOS system - AFOS = Automation of Field Operations and Services (AFOS) • 1997: AWIPS I deployed • 2004: NWS review identified AWIPS software as major obstacle to meeting future mission requirements – Costly to maintain; Challenging to infuse new science and applications • 2006: NWS executed contract option for AWIPS II-related projects • 2011: AWIPS II Field OTE began • 2012 -2015: AWIPS II migration to National Centers and field offices AWIPS Port Functionality to Flexible Architecture AWIPS II Migration Extend Unified Baseline & Continue Functional Improvement AWIPS II Extended and S&T Infusion 6

AWIPS II Migration Objectives • Objectives: Migrate existing AWIPS capabilities to a modern, robust Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) in order to: – – – Unify stove piped applications into single framework Improve maintainability & stability via streamlined, extensible software Reduce maintenance costs Speed infusion of research to operations Improve public weather forecast accuracy and timeliness • Metrics for success: Migration of legacy to SOA expected to bring measureable benefits: – Reduce time to transition from 18 months to 9 months – Reduce software development time for new products by 50% – Increase software release frequency from 2 to 4 per year 7

AWIPS II Migration AWIPS II Software Re-Architecture Approach • Perform “black-box” conversion of AWIPS I functions to AWIPS II – Preserve existing functionality, “look and feel” on top of new Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) infrastructure • Thorough field validation and acceptance before deployment – Forecaster initial testing sessions; continuing/expanding in next phase • No loss of functionality – Deployed system current with deployed AWIPS capability • Use open source projects - No proprietary code – JAVA, Post. Gres, Qpid, Pypyies, Eclipse devel. environment, etc. • Objective is to make AWIPS II the platform for collaborative development with public, private, academic and international weather communities – Added useful functionality – Portable code base – No license fees; No copyright – Source code available to collaborators – Common development environment available to collaborators 8

AWIPS II Migration Current Deployment Status (as of Jan 2015) • AWIPS II currently supporting operations at: – – 42 (of 122) local Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) 13 (of 13) regional River Forecast Centers (RFCs) 8 (of 8) national-level NCEP center sites 6 (of 6) NWS Regional Headquarters • WFO deployment timeline – – – Group 1 complete; exited 30 -day stability test on November 7, 2013 Group 2 complete; exited 30 -day stability test on February 24, 2014 Group 3 complete; exited 30 -day stability test on July 2, 2014 Group 4 complete; exited 30 -day stability test on October 15, 2014 Group 5 complete; exited 30 -day stability test on December 18, 2014 • General Deployment begins January 12, 2015 9

AWIPS II Migration WFO Locations Using AWIPS II 10

AWIPS II Migration RFCs/NCs Locations Using AWIPS II 11

AWIPS II Migration General Deployment Guidelines • Guidelines: – Scheduling accomplish similar to other AWIPS software releases • Installs typically Monday – Wednesday; Thursday is make-up day – Release installed is based on • Release accepted for operational deployment • Availability of ADAM release • Availability of variance training – Site responsible for ensuring readiness to install software • Approximate amount of time required for key activities – Local Application Migration: 60 -90 days – Variance Training: Training window (for each release) opens as soon as training is available (minimum of 30 -day prior to installation) – Installation: 6 -8 hours – Service Backup: 24 Hours (may be less) • MICs certify migration of local applications and completion of variance training by forecast staff prior to installation 12

AWIPS II Migration General Deployment Best Practices • Best Practices: – Work with Regional Focal Points to establish “buddy site” – Utilize pre- and post-installation checklists – Utilize ADAM to test out configuration, local applications, etc. – Take back operational responsibility as functionality checks out – Open Trouble Tickets whenever you encounter a problem – Ask for help via Trouble Tickets or awips 2 dev list server 13

Vision for Future Continuations from current Contract • Basic contract structure: – O&M contract to operate/maintain system across National enterprise; continue approach of building towards stable and predictable O&M costs – Product Improvement contract to provide upgrades (e. g. , Extended Projects) • Continued focus on operational reliability/performance, IT security, cost effectiveness, customer support • Continued system evolution to meet evolving requirements, as well as to meet Dept. Commerce, NOAA and NWS Strategic Objectives: – DOC: http: //www. commerce. gov/blog/2014/03/10/department-commercereleases-fy-2014 -2018 -strategic-plan – NOAA: http: //www. ppi. noaa. gov – NWS: http: //www. nws. noaa. gov/com/weatherreadynation 14

Vision for Future *Potential Changes with New Contract • Provide 24/7/365 O&M support to NWS operational entities • Adhere to Government Computer/IT Security standards and requirements. • Establish necessary governance and/or processes as the integrator of AWIPS baseline software. • Provide enhancements and maintenance of AWIPS baseline software. • Provide a distributed AWIPS development environment and necessary governance for collaborative development of AWIPS software. • Provide an AWIPS architecture that reduces the AWIPS hardware footprint such that the proposed solution maximizes performance and operational efficiencies. • Provide AWIPS architecture that allows the users to visualize anticipated increases in hydrometorological data required for support mission requirements. * This subset of potential changes are under consideration only. NO final decisions have been made 15

Vision for Future Key Acquisition Dates • January 2015 – Anticipated Draft RFP Release • February 3 -4, 2015 – Industry Day at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction (NCWCP) Conference Center located in College Park, Maryland • March 2015 – Anticipated Final RFP Release • June 2015 – Proposal Due Date 16

Vision for Future Acquisition Points of Contact Contracting Officer – Kenneth Brumfiel, NOAA AGO • Kenneth. Brumfiel@noaa. gov • 757 -441 -3433 Acquisition Lead – Mark B. Miller, NWS OST • Mark. B. Miller@noaa. gov • 301 -427 -9271 Program Manager – Ronla Henry, NWS OST • Ronla. Henry@noaa. gov • 301 -427 -9277 Contracting Officer Representative – Beraq Azeem, OST • Beraq. Azeem@noaa. gov • 301 -427 -9239 AWIPS technical library • https: //vlab. ncep. noaa. gov/web/awips-technical-library/home/ 17

QUESTIONS ? ?