A Journey into Cloud Computing — An Agency’s Experience

by: Asghar Noor

Tuesday February 22, 2011

The National Weather Service (NWS) has played a key role in protecting American Lives and properties

for over a century. The timely provision of reliable weather, water, climate, and environmental

information has supported the Nation’s social and economic development. Over the next ten years,

weather, water, climate, and environmental information will play a greater role in the significant

decisions we make as individuals and as a society – from the quality and quantity of water we need and

the air we breathe, to the generation and distribution of renewable energy, the safe passage of

country’s highways, seas, and airways – making life safer, healthier, and more productive. NWS relies

heavily on technology to model weather, process observation data, and use decision support systems to

provide forecasts, warnings, and predictions. NWS is going through a transition and started to leverage

its data to make better predictions. This talk will focus on the role of Cloud computing on the NWS quest

to provide impact-based weather prediction.

Asghar Noor has a 20+-year track record in the information technology industry, and

has held senior management positions in both public and private sectors. Asghar

has held senior positions in the Federal Government over the last 15 years and

managed the development and deployment of IT and Command systems for

National Weather Service (NWS), National Institute of Health (NIH), Department of

Defense, and US Treasury. At NWS he designed the SOA based systems for the

National Telecommunication Gateway and is currently working to implement Cloud

computing. At NIH, he led the design of web based applications that enabled

reviewers to identify the scientific merit of research proposals using the Asynchronous Enhance

Discussion and the Automated Referral Workflow System, which saved NIH $14M in 2008. Before joining

the Federal Government, Asghar held senior technical leadership positions at Motorola and Nortel. He

is the author of System Design with The MC68020, MC68030, MC68040: 32-bit Microprocessors, Van

Nostrand Reinhold Publishing, New York, NY, 1993; and Co-authored Handbook of Local Area Networks,

Auerbach Publishers, Boston and New York, 1991. He has published 25-technical papers in

communication networks, simulation and modeling, software architecture and design, embedded

systems, and expert systems. Asghar received his Ph.D. in computer and electrical engineering from

University of Calgary.

6:30 PM – Networking and Pizza(*); 7:00 - 8:00 PM – Program

(*) There is no cost to attend at McLean and Silver Spring.

Locations: The presentation will originate at the McLean facility, with video tele-conferencing (VTC)

between:

MITRE, room 1N100

7515 Colshire Drive

McLean, VA 22102

host: Scott Ankrum

cell: 240-731-7581

FDA, Bld 66, room G512

10903 New Hampshire Ave

Silver Spring, MD 20993

host: James Simpson

cell: 301-996-4976

MITRE, room 2503

260 Industrial Way West

Eatontown, NJ 07724

host: Richard Eng

cell: 703-201-9112

MITRE, room 1M306

202 Burlington Rd (Rt. 62)

Bedford, MA 01730

host: Tim Rice

cell: 978-758-2704

If you can host another location via VTC, please contact Scott Ankrum

Registration Website: http://www.asq509.org/ht/d/DoSurvey/i/26913

For more details and driving directions, see: http://www.asq509.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/56615

T. Scott Ankrum

Senior Software Systems Engineer

“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” General George S. Patton, Jr.