The Bureau of Meteorology is planning to introduce a new data integration platform that can handle a "large variety and volume of data" under an ongoing project to improve the security and resilience of its systems.
The wider project aims to harden the bureau’s operating environment after a suspected hack on the agency by “foreign adversaries” in 2015.
The program was given an undisclosed amount of funding in this year’s federal budget.
Last month, the agency began searching for a secure digital channels platform to replace the numerous websites, mobile applications, SMS and social media used to deliver meteorological information and services to users.
It has now begun looking for one or more service providers to build an equally “secure and resilient” integration platform to deal with the bureau’s “large variety and volume of data”, including “weather observations, super computer models, forecasts, warnings, analysis and advice,” tender documents state.
The new integration platform will sit behind the channels platform and “provide the backbone for the secure collection, efficient transportation, translation and delivery of data across the bureau and with external channels”.
It will also link up with the bureau’s Cray-built supercomputer, applications, and field sensors, while addressing challenges with the bureau’s existing integration platform, which - like the Bureau’s digital channels - are mostly custom-built on various outdated technologies.
Platform components it is looking for include an enterprise service bus (ESB) that will need to support 27 million real-time messages each day, and API management that can scale to 24 million API calls per day.
It will also need to integrate with the bureau’s security services, including identity and access management, which the bureau said would be revamped in a separate sub-project.
Other sub-projects planned target network, storage and computer, data management platform, and ICT management robustness.
