GOVERNMENT DATA CENTERS: Meeting Increasing Demands
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by the federal agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Contract No. NASW-01008. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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COMMITTEE ON COPING WITH INCREASING DEMANDS ON GOVERNMENT DATA CENTERS
JEFF DOZIER, Chair,
University of California, Santa Barbara
ANURAG ACHARYA (through June 2002),
Google, Inc., Mountain View, California
LAWRENCE BUJA,
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
LEO MARK,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
JONATHAN OVERPECK,
University of Arizona, Tucson
MARY F. WHEELER,
University of Texas, Austin
THOMAS R. YENGST,
The Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, California
NRC Staff
KERI H. MOORE, Study Director
MONICA R. LIPSCOMB, Research Assistant
SHANNON L. RUDDY, Senior Project Assistant
COMMITTEE ON GEOPHYSICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA
J. BERNARD MINSTER, Chair,
University of California, San Diego
ROGER C. BALES,
University of Arizona, Tucson
MARY ANNE CARROLL,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
JEFF DOZIER,
University of California, Santa Barbara
DAVID GLOVER,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
MARK J. MCCABE,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
JOHN M. MELACK,
University of California, Santa Barbara
ROY RADNER,
New York University, New York
ROBERT J. SERAFIN,
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
NRC Staff
ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer
SHANNON L. RUDDY, Senior Project Assistant
BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES
GEORGE M. HORNBERGER, Chair,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
JILL F. BANFIELD,
University of California, Berkeley
STEVEN R. BOHLEN,
Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Washington, D.C.
VICKI J. COWART,
Colorado Geological Survey, Denver
DAVID L. DILCHER,
University of Florida, Gainesville
ADAM M. DZIEWONSKI,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
WILLIAM L. GRAF,
University of South Carolina, Columbia
RHEA GRAHAM,
New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, Albuquerque
V. RAMA MURTHY,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
DIANNE R. NIELSON,
Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Salt Lake City
RAYMOND A. PRICE,
Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
MARK SCHAEFER,
NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia
BILLIE L. TURNER II,
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
THOMAS J. WILBANKS,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee
NRC Staff
ANTHONY R. DE SOUZA, Director
TAMARA L. DICKINSON, Senior Program Officer
DAVID A. FEARY, Senior Program Officer
ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer
PAUL M. CUTLER, Program Officer
KRISTEN L. KRAPF, Program Officer
KERI H. MOORE, Program Officer
LISA M. VANDEMARK, Program Officer
YVONNE P. FORSBERGH, Research Assistant
MONICA R. LIPSCOMB, Research Assistant
EILEEN MCTAGUE, Research Assistant
JENNIFER T. ESTEP, Administrative Associate
VERNA J. BOWEN, Administrative Assistant
RADHIKA CHARI, Senior Project Assistant
KAREN L. IMHOF, Senior Project Assistant
SHANNON L. RUDDY, Senior Project Assistant
Acknowledgments
This report has been reviewed by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Tom Barclay, Bay Area Research Group, Microsoft Corporation, San Francisco
Francis Bretherton, University of Wisconsin, Madison
James Frew, Bren School of Environmental Sciences and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara
Patricia G. Selinger, Director of Database Integration, IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory, San Jose, California
J. Ronald Wilson, Marine Environmental Data Service (retired), Ontario, Canada
Although the individuals listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions and recommendations nor did they see the final draft of
the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Debra Meese, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. Appointed by the National Research Council, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Preface
As repositories of the nation’s environmental data, U.S. government data centers are constantly evolving. The data they collect, disseminate, and archive are critical to assessing the state of the earth and our effect on it. As the data record grows, so does our understanding of the environment. However, because of the increasing amount and complexity of and demand for environmental data, data centers seek technological approaches that would increase their capabilities while maintaining their quality of service.
At the request of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the National Research Council formed the Committee on Coping with Increasing Demands on Government Data Centers (Appendix A). The committee was charged to hold a workshop to examine the extent to which emerging technologies can help data centers meet user needs and build and maintain the long-term record of environmental change.
The workshop on April 29-30, 2002, at the University of Texas at Austin (Appendix B) was attended by representatives from U.S. government data centers and the global environmental science community, as well as by experts in information technology (IT) from industry and academia (Appendix C). After an introductory plenary session, speakers and participants divided into two working groups: data access and ingest, and data distribution and processing. The group reconvened in plenary session at the end of the afternoon to share the results from their discussion (Appendix D). The following morning a reaction panel with representatives from data centers, the user
community, and the IT industry assessed the conclusions from the first day’s deliberations (Appendix D). These discussions and subsequent work by the committee form the basis for this report.
The committee reviews technological approaches that should be given consideration not only by the data center managers and their sponsoring agencies but also by user communities. Some of these approaches are already being implemented at some data centers. However, limitations of budget and time preclude this report being a comprehensive review of individual data center operations.
The committee would like to thank the workshop participants, whose participation and expertise made the event successful. In addition, the committee would like to acknowledge the contributions of Marjory Blumenthal, director, and Jon Eisenberg of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board; Anne Linn, director of the Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data; and especially Keri Moore, study director, who worked diligently toward the completion of the project.
Jeff Dozier
Chair