New hosting environment fast-tracks CoGIS implementation

A smiling Hardy Jonck, CEO of Qsens shows off the new 7TB storage area network (SAN) and associated components which will form the hosting environment for CoGIS (Picture © Avinash Chunthapursat) Close-up of the new 7TB storage area network for the hosting of the CoGIS (Picture © Avinash Chunthapursat)

- By Avinash Chuntharpursat, SAEON Information Management Coordinator

Software developer Qsens (Pty) Ltd has just launched its new 7TB storage area network (SAN) and associated components which will comprise the hosting environment of the Collaborative Geographical Information Service (CoGIS). CoGIS has been discussed in past newsletters and in the numerous presentations and demonstrations that I've been giving across the planet.

The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) signed an agreement last year aimed at enabling SAEON to accelerate delivery on its mandate of establishing innovative research platforms and information management systems for long-term multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional and participatory ecosystem studies with strong regional and global linkages.

In terms of the agreement with the CSIR's Natural Resources and the Environment operating unit, CoGIS, a CSIR designed content management service, will be customised for SAEON. CoGIS was developed by the former AgileWorks (Pty) Ltd, a company subcontracted by the CSIR.

The CoGIS has been jointly funded by SAEON, the CSIR and the Department of Minerals and Energy. The purpose of the collaborative GIS is to search, retrieve and integrate spatial data from different systems with different formats, scales and resolutions (provided the data is compliant with Open GIS Consortium standards) and make the data available to the user via the internet.

Currently, there is a frenzy of activity at the various CSIR Earth Observation and System Design and Management (SDM) units to get data cleaned and in the right format to load onto the system. With the CoGIS still in its infancy there will be bugs to sort out and ergonomics to be improved, but that's a challenge that SAEON is looking forward to.

Qsens specialises in system architecture, software engineering, web portals, geographic information systems and advanced data visualization. The company has a strong emphasis on Software Architecture and the Software Development Process.

"SAEON's currency is long-term environmental data."
- Johan Pauw, Head of SAEON