1. 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

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

3. 3 AWIPS Overview What is 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 Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS)

4. AWIPS Overview AWIPS Locations 4

5. 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): 30Mbps satellite broadcast network; primary and backup Master Ground Station plus 167 site ground stations LAN: IPv6 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

6. AWIPS Overview Evolution of AWIPS Extend Unified Baseline & Continue Functional Improvement AWIPS AWIPS II Migration AWIPS II Extended and S&T Infusion Port Functionality to Flexible Architecture Late 80s - early 90s: 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 6

7. 7 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

8. 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, PostGres, 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

9. 9 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

10. 10 AWIPS II Migration WFO Locations Using AWIPS II

11. 11 AWIPS II Migration RFCs/NCs Locations Using AWIPS II

12. 12 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

13. 13 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 awips2dev list server

14. 14 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-commerce- releases-fy-2014-2018-strategic-plan –NOAA: http://www.ppi.noaa.gov –NWS: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation

15. 15 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

16. 16 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

17. 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/https://vlab.ncep.noaa.gov/web/awips-technical-library/home/ 17 Vision for Future Acquisition Points of Contact

18. QUESTIONS ????