cloud lessons learned: case studies -- bill appelbe, victorian partnership in advanced computing

VANZI Presentation @ Cybera Summit - Oct 2011

VANZI – “Real world wisdom thru virtual worlds”


Outline

•  Who is VPAC – and our role in Cyberinfrastucture

•  Traditional infrastructure planning

–  White papers, consultants, and “one off studies”

•  VANZI – virtual worlds for infrastructure planning

–  Hypothetical case studies – VANZI 2020

•  Roadblocks to the VANZI Vision

–  Removing those roadblocks

–  Projects in the pipeline

•  Summary


VPAC

•  VPAC and Cybera are “sibling” organizations –  State-based “Cyberinfrastructure”, “not for profit” –  But significant differences …

•  VPAC –  Founded in 2000 –  Employs over 40 technical staff

•  Sys administration, software development, engineers, … –  Revenue from contracts and services

• Not “grant-based” anymore • Major commercial clients including GM

–  Partner with many companies and organizations incl. IBM and DDN


Traditional Infrastructure Planning

•  Infrastructure planning for “large projects” (e.g., major provincial/state $), has not advanced much for decades

–  Managed by “white papers”, consultancies, “one-off” studies and models/simulation … followed by a “competitive bid” process

•  What is wrong with this approach?

–  Stakeholder engagement is often limited

–  Each project is a “silo” – little or no reuse of data or models

–  Limited ability to manage risk or manage infrastructure life-cycle

•  By running “what if” scenarios, long-term planning for infrastructure


VANZI 2020 •  Case Study #1 – I want to dig a hole in my front yard…

–  Right now, call “dial before you dig”

–  They lookup utility data, come out a few days later and spray paint where the pipes and lines are

–  If your discover its wrong… good luck getting the data corrected

•  In VANZI 2020….

–  You open up the iDigIt.com.ca HTML6 website on your phone

–  Authenticate, and see a 3D utility map overlaid on the scene as you walk around

–  Find anything else interesting, upload the image, it is analyzed via the utilities software agent and utility databases are updated


VANZI 2020 (continued) •  Case Study #2 – the City of Melbourne plans to build a new

city rail station, called “Southlands”

–  Right now, an internal study by DoT then a tender is issued

–  A determined citizen can get the 1,000+ page plan by FoI

–  Maybe there is a movie created that shows what it might look like

•  In VANZI 2020….

–  A 3D interactive public model of the planned station is created

•  In the cloud… data, compute, visualization

–  Authorized users can do specialized studies and modify the model

•  E.g., arborists; or law enforcement looking at crime prevention; traffic flow impact analysis feed data from population growth models


Roadblocks to VANZI 2020 •  99% of the IT technology to do VANZI 2020 exists now!

–  But state of the art is typically non-interactive “movies” and custom 2D overlays using google maps

•  So what limits achieving VANZI 2020?

1. Difficulty of “real-time” access to GIS data sets

2. Creating 3D interactive models requires “3D game designer” expertise

3. Government and utility conservatism

4. Lack of a “platform”… each GIS project has to build its own IT infrastructure (glue to tie together what exists)


Removing Roadblocks to VANZI 2020 1.  Difficulty of access to GIS data sets

–  And combining them

•  Solution

–  National and provincial projects such as the “spatial marketplace” in Australia http://crcsi.com.au

•  Web services and infrastructure for data access

–  Government regulation requiring utility providers to provide curated data access

–  Emerging open standards and peak bodies for 3D infrastructure data e.g., http://www.ucinet.info/ http://www.dspec.com.au/

–  Emerging 3D GIS databases


Removing Roadblocks to VANZI 2020 (cont.) 2.  Creating 3D interactive models requires “3D game

designer” expertise

•  Solution

–  Engage the game development community

–  Develop better tools and libraries for GIS data import

–  Leverage and collaborate with existing companies with 3D modeling expertise


Removing Roadblocks to VANZI 2020 3.  Government and utility conservatism

•  Solution

–  VANZI models are an “adjunct” to traditional approaches to infrastructure design and planning, not a replacement

–  VANZI as a way of “minimizing risk” and “community engagement”

–  Agile software development and project management for VANZI projects

–  Leverage off early “eager adopters” and case studies


Removing Roadblocks to VANZI 2020 4.  Lack of a “platform”… each GIS project has to build its

own IT infrastructure (glue to tie together what exists)

•  Solution

–  A concerted long-term open-source project to build and evolve the VANZI platform

–  One project at a time… but with a long-term vision and architecture


User Interface Layer Website with ability to run MIS model set model parameters interactively,

export data from model, etc.

Data Access Layer API’s for import/export of data from Stakeholder’s DB’s, population data,

etc.

Logistics operator

Government Policy Analyst

Population Data

Model/Simulation Layer

Port Inland Port

Road network

Rail network

MIS network

Object Layer -‐ Data Aggregation/Transformation

Shipping Container

Truck Ship Train

Freight distribution data

Road network

Rail network

External DB’s


The VANZ Initiative •  Achieving the VANZ vision requires a strong consortia

•  Solution, form a new “not for profit” entity

•  Members of VANZI national consortia

–  CRCSi – the national spatial data consortia, 70+ companies –  NiCTA – National ICT Australia (R&D) –  MAV – Municipal Association of Victoria

–  VPAC •  A strong VANZI Board track record of government

engagement


VANZI Projects

•  VANZI was only formed about 3 months ago

–  So it is “early days”, our website will not be up for a week or so

–  For now, contact [email protected]

•  Two key large infrastructure projects we are engaging

–  City of Melbourne 3D Modeling

•  Multiyear project to create an evolving 4D data model of the city and its infrastructure /buildings; for urban planning, tourism, …

–  Melbourne Intermodal System (MIS)

•  A freight transport and port plan for the city for infrastructure development going forward


The MIS Project & VANZI


Questions

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