1. 1 AWIPS and ITIL Meeting Mission Critical Requirements June 24, 2008

2. 2 AWIPS Overview AWIPS: Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System - The NWS’ nationwide operational weather visualization, forecast and warning dissemination system AWIPS is a mission-critical system crucial to the safety and economic well-being of Americans 137 operational locations with AWIPS hardware, software, and communications Network Control Facility (NCF) in Silver Spring, MD with geographically separate Continuity of Operations (COOP) facility Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN) communications uplinking from Hauppauge, NY, also with COOP facility Terrestrial SMTP-based WAN connecting all 137 locations Fully redundant with automatic or NCF initiated fail-over to ensure high availability Currently about 2 major software releases per year with additional maintenance releases and emergency releases, as needed AWIPS System structured to meet critical requirements aligns well with ITIL: NCF (Service desk), High Availability and COOP requirements Incident Management, Problem Management, Change and Release processes

3. 3 AWIPS is the Critical Link to the NWS Field Forecaster NEXRAD AWIPS Workstations and Servers GOES/POES ASOS NCEP Models Buoys, River Gauges Forecasts Warnings Advisories Watches AWIPS Communications Service provided to 3066 US Counties 24 hr/day, 365 days/yr. 169 separate AWIPS systems at 137 geographical locations ~900 Workstations (total) ~1200 Servers (total) AWIPS and the Field Forecaster are critical in meeting almost every NWS GPRA goal

4. 4 Weather Visualization and Warning Systems Increasing Data Rates and User Interactions Stress System Increasing Data Rates Increasing User Data Interactions First Person Shooter Video Game Weather User Visualization Situational Awareness Visualization Google Earth CAD Systems ITIL Problem Management (root cause analysis) as well as Incident Management (service restoration) processes are important in managing a mission critical weather system

5. 5 AWIPS National Benefits Benefits to public safety and the national economy Timely warnings and forecasts are critical in Severe Weather events AWIPS is a key IT component of NOAA’s All Hazards Network Estimated that one third of US economy is weather sensitive Industries directly impacted by weather account for nearly 10% of GDP The AWIPS NOAAPort satellite broadcast network is a primary source of weather data and information to the Nation’s public and private weather infrastructure AWIPS Must Work and a robust, ITIL aligned infrastructure is critical to keep it ready for severe weather and supporting the National Economy