Authors
Gavin Stilgoe, Linda Bibby, and Boris Rudoy (Department of Primary Industries, Victoria)
Abstract
In 2006, the Earth Resources Division (ERD) of the Department of Primary Industries decided to introduce a service-oriented architecture (SOA) layer to improve how it manages and delivers geoscience information. The information includes geological mapping
information, boreholes, historical mining data, geochemistry data and field observations. The main business drivers are to improve interoperability, business processes and science quality for the information, and to minimise the number of technology platforms ERD
supports. An important objective is integrated data delivery from both aspatial and spatial applications, to both internal and external clients.
The SOA layer sits over existing and new systems across multiple platforms (JEE and .NET). Some of the components of the architecture are new, built on JEE with a Google Web Toolkit interface, but most components are unmodified from existing technology, mostly OpenROAD and ESRI.
This paper presents both the technological and human challenges faced by ERD in its attempt to move to a SOA-based service delivery model. Benefits of our approach include improved science quality of our data, the ability to present a seamless view of data from
traditionally disparate industries, and a more agile, responsive ICT development methodology. SOA implementation is complex, and requires skilled personnel with a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve. SOA forces a rigorous approach to testing, and we have yet to understand the performance issues associated with a full production system. However, our approach offers unprecedented opportunities for clients external to DPI to access public data. We believe it could pave the way for Victorian Government to embrace SOA across all datasets using a simple model of authoritative sources publishing web services that effectively removes data duplication and presents all Government data in a standard way.
About the speaker
Gavin Stilgoe has been working with information technology since 1983, and has designed and developed systems for finance, engineering, mining and geoscientific applications in Australia and overseas. He is currently Senior Solutions Architect for the Earth Resources Division of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and is overseeing the migration of their information systems to a service oriented architecture. Based on W3C and Open Geospatial Consortium standards these services are intended to provide data suitable for more than just map making and reporting but for use in distributed systems that allow analysis, simulation and modelling.