NWS Internet Status HIC Meeting, July 09 Bob Bunge Internet Dissemination Officer Office of the Chief Information Officer x140

7/1/ NWS Internet Services About 200 “web sites” across NWS content providers (webmasters) 9-12,000 products processed per hour 5-10 million users supported each day Peak traffic volumes million users during high impact weather events Declared Operational by Corp. Board and reinforced by DAA during IMC Face2Face Meeting June 09 Continuing to plan for and support emerging technology (e.g., AHPS VI, NWSchat, iNWS, etc.)

7/1/ NWS Internet Overview MET: 5-10% of total Internet weather traffic –OCIO actively advocates products should be available from multiple dissemination systems Hydro: ?? 95+% of Internet hydro traffic –Supported by Regional Web Farms –Single point of failure –All eggs in one basket? –No backup and disaster recovery strategy

7/1/ NWS Internet Overview Web 2.0 Challenges –Facebook, Twitter, etc, NWS content on 3 rd party tools Requires GC approved terms of service Coming to grips with IT security requirements Coming to grips with concept for operations Dealing with the laws: Section 508, PRA, Records management, FOIA, etc Dealing NOAA/DOC/OMB policies Avoiding a repeat of the web chaos of the 1990s Widgets, iPhone apps, and other cool stuff NWS Strategically moving from “product-centric” to “data and information-centric” paradigm

7/1/ Consolidated Internet Farm Overview Three farms, operated as a single unit Geographically load balanced Built from existing web farms Regions turned over control of farms to OCIO OCIO accepted responsibility for farms Hardware/networking/firewalls unified as resources permit Migration of all agency websites to farms as resources permit Supporting NWSchat, likely home for iNWS, WWA/CAP push over XMPP, etc

7/1/ AHPS VI Six dedicated web servers (2 at each farm); Three backend servers at each web farm (Hydrograph generation, etc) Three database clusters (15 total) (shared) Two NFS file servers (6 total) (shared)

7/1/ CIF Status Targeted for 99.9% availability –18 months of success! –CCB/WTT (IT/MSD) partnership –About 1,500 change requests handled in 18 months, normally about 150 open tickets –Open Change Configuration Board calls –CCB members maintain final vote, OCIO maintains 51% of vote –CCB Membership: Bob Bunge (chair), Kolly Mars (CR SIB), Paul Kirkwood (SRH)

7/1/ CIF Status Dedicated Team –Team lead –Three sysadmins (contract) –One programmer –Senior and junior web designers/catch all –Project specialist Volunteer Team (part time) –Four Region ITs –Four/five WFO ITs Related Teams –AHPS contractors –Climate contractors –AWC ITs/Contractors

7/1/ CIF Status Currently Hosting –All point and zone forecast pages –All radar pages –All but WR graphical forecast pages (WR almost!) –All Watch/warning maps –All CR WFO/RFC’s, 12 SR WFO/RFC/CWSU’s –Mirroring NDBC –First Generation Climate pages –Text product display pages –Air Quality Graphics –NWSChat –NDFD/ current observations/Watch/warning XML feeds –Marine Portal –More… Supported Google Earth site/Google Map license Involved in Common Alerting Protocol standards process

7/1/ CIF Status Content Delivery Network Services –Contracted with two vendors, currently supporting ER, PR and WR –Switch radar, forecast, NHC and NWS home pages as needed Spiked to 0.9 Gb/s traffic during winter wx Spiked to 1.1 Gb/s traffic during tropical wx Improving trouble shooting, notification tools Improving online documentation Agency lead on CAP (with OCWWS)

7/1/ CIF Status/Challenges In the pipeline – what is coming our way –Consolidated Aviation Web Services (CAWS) in FAA QICP compliance testing now (e.g., ADDS/Aviationwx.gov now, CWSU’s, WIFS in the future) –AHPS VI in testing now, scheduled fall ’09 deployment –RIDGE/Radar II in testing/comment –Google map based watch/warning maps –ER developed “graphical” to national forecast pages –CAP feeds operational (Dec ’09) –Complete SR CMS migration –Start WR/ER CMS migration –Start PR/SPC/AR migration –Climate pages redesign –National Fire Weather pages –Operational NWSchat –Experimental CAP push over XMPP (with OST) –Facebook, Twitter, other Web rd party stuff We must establish corporate priorities, everything can’t be a #1 priority

7/1/ CIF Challenges Program Initiatives above normal operations –OSIP SON to create Internet Dissemination Program –Combined C&A – Oct 30 target date –Involvement in Strategic Planning process –Involvement in service program meetings –Expand from just tracking changes to providing resource priority tracking –Stake holder in Research to Operations process –Web 1.0/2.0/3.0 policy –Keeping NWS at the forefront in US Government Internet policy development through policy engagement at NOAA/DOC/OMB level –Data.gov meta data review/submission

7/1/ CIF Challenges Challenges –People resources – still a “heroic” effort –All programs lead to OCIO/single point of squeeze –Processes in place, but not documented well –Security/C&A –Dependant on regional resources –No line item budget – still in purgatory after a decade –Current life cycle isn’t smooth –Technology; file systems, databases –Rapid move into Web 2.0 technologies –Integration of modern non-Web technologies, getting people to realize it is more than just web pages –Web statistics –Better automated tools for when the dataflow fails

7/1/ CIF/Hydro Challenges Archival requirements and resulting resources; –$A/per GB at one farm – 98.5% availability –$Ax10/per GB to mirror – 99.9% availability Potential opportunity for leveraging CLASS and NCDC Interactivity requirements and resulting resources/risk to availability Encourage private sector development? More data services vs web pages

7/1/ Primary Points OCIO working with OHD, OCWWS, and S&T and others to craft Internet Dissemination into a program with a O&M budget Continuing to mature into an acceptable dissemination system at all levels Security: Credibility is at stake Walking the gray line: Need to be responsive while running a mature, planned, reliable, dependable system

7/1/ CIF Questions Questions?

7/1/ What do we need from them? Please also challenge them to help us get through AHAPS6 rollout and future enhancements