General Questions
Data Ingestion and Online Storage
Minimum System Requirements
Use Case Scenario
Technical and Integration Requirements
Support and Service
Security Access
Pricing
Terms and Conditions
Communications
General Technical Questions
General Support and Service Questions

General Questions

I already have an GIS system; why do I need EarthWhere™?

EarthWhere™ compliments your existing desktop GIs application by enabling you to provision various raster data sources into a custom dataset that supports your application. These finished "products" can then be uploaded directly into the GIs database if required or simply deleted when the analysis is completed.

With EarthWhere’s API's (Application Programming Interface), users can interact directly with EarthWhere™ from within their existing desktop application.

 

We are using several systems to process imagery; ERDAS, ENVI, Intergraph.
Does EarthWhere™ replace these systems?

The image processing components of the EarthWhere™ system are limited to the provisioning of data. These include:

Combining
Re-projecting
Re-sampling
Clipping
Formatting

These features are included with most desktop image processing applications but are repetitive, manual processes that are required for every dataset.

EarthWhere™ eliminates these repetitive processes by providing preprocessed imagery to support your image processing projects. By provisioning data to your image processing end users, you increase their productivity and provide consistency throughout the organization.

 

When will EarthWhere™ become available?

The general release of EarthWhere™ 3.3 is currently available.

How can I get more information?

Please select contact us and email your question and one of our EarthWhere technical support personnel will provide the information you need.

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Data Ingestion and Online Storage

How is data ingested into the system?

EarthWhere™ provides a catalog that is populated during the image ingestion process. At that time, the data is catalogued and the system creates thumbnails, metadata, and RRDS. The ingestion application facilitates the loading and staging of datasets into the EarthWhere™ server by executing a command-line for each dataset. Data ingestion is performed in a two step process: Loading and Staging. The Loading Step creates three supplementary files needed by the processing engines to produce products. These supplementary files are: Overview file (.ovr), Geometry file (.geom) and Histogram file (.his), depending on the dataset type and format.

The Staging step loads all metadata information into the database and provides immediate data access to both the server processing engines and the client-side application. Optional fields, an acquisition date and/or a description, can be added at this step to be placed into the appropriate fields in the record of the database. This ensures that when a client-side application queries the database for metadata the dataset will be easily identifiable.

The metadata created by EarthWhere contains the necessary data items to be FGDC compliant.

 

How is the data stored online?

The source imagery is stored on the customer's network file system. This file system will determine how and where the data is stored (disk or tape). The metadata and RRD's are stored on disk for quick access. EarthWhere does not touch the source data other than reading the files. The system creates RRDS files and thumbnails to assist in the provisioning process.

During the provisioning process, the image chain, which is developed on the back-end, can perform all of the combining, reprojection, clipping, and reformatting with one resample. This process assures that there is minimum feature loss and maximum preservation of radiometry.

 

Where is the source imagery stored?

Source imagery is stored as flat files and managed by the customer's network file system in their native format, datum and projection.

Is the source imagery compressed, if so how?

Source data is stored in its native format. Input source data may be compressed in LZW, JPEG, PackBits, or JPEG2000. Output products can be compressed using compression technology provided the appropriate software licensing is in place.

 

Do you have any proprietary techniques for compressing or decompressing the data?

EarthWhere™ uses Open Source Software whenever appropriate and is built to be modular should the customer desire to implement their propriety technology.

 

Do you have any proprietary techniques for accessing the data to address speed, throughput, and database manageability?

The EarthWhere™ Enterprise Series (software, servers and storage offering) implements Sun Microsystems SAMfs for network-centric file access and hierarchical storage management. EarthWhere™ Server (software only) does not contain proprietary access techniques.

 

Do you have a preference or recommendation for storage media?

EarthWhere is designed to be media independent. A strong financial case can be made for implementing SANZ Tiered Storage Architecture™ that leverages the appropriate blending of Disk and Tape technology to meet specific cost and performance requirements for a customer installation.

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Minimum System Requirements

What are the minimum system requirements for your product?

Web Client

Hardware
CPU: 900 MHz CPU
RAM: 256MB RAM
Display: Full Color

Monitor Resolution
Minimum: 1024x768 display @ 16 bit;
Optimum: 1280x1024 or larger @ 32 bit

Software
Operating Systems: Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP; UNIX OS with Netscape Installed

Web Browser: Internet Explorer Version 5.5SP2 or 6.0SP1, Netscape Navigator Version 7.02
Mozilla 1.4.1
(JavaScript must be enabled)

Web and Image Processing Server

Hardware
CPU: 2 GHz Intel
RAM: 1GB
Hard Drive Space: 500 MB without data
Sufficient data storage to hold 1.5x the amount of source data.

Software
Operating System: RedHat Linux 9 or RHEL 3.0
JDK: Java Development Kit v.1.4.1 or higher

The following applications are also required to run SANZ EarthWhere™;

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP allows you to browse the database via a web browser.
SQL Server: MySQL 4.07
Web Server: Jakarta Tomcat v.4.1.18
Map Server: OpenMap v.4.5.4 and its default map layers

What is the optimal configuration?

CPU: Quad Xeon CPUs; 2.4 GHz or faster recommended
RAM: 2GB RAM
Hard Drive Space: Dual 36GB Hard Drives for system and application (excludes data)
Sufficient data storage to hold 1.5x the amount of source data.

What are your performance benchmarks (sizing, throughput, delivery rate, ingest rate)?

Ingest process can read and ingest 200-300 records per hour including the creation of reduced resolution datasets on a dual Pentium Intel server. Without the RRDS, the times are much faster as the operation only imports database records. Output processing has been measured at 8 MB/S on a quad processor Intel server.

 

Are there any third-party products that are used and need to be licensed?

For any compression technologies, the appropriate license is required.

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Use Case Scenario

Please outline a use case scenario, include search, browse, identification, selection, order entry, fulfillment, and billing.

End users define an area of interest and then the system provides a mapping UI which displays the footprints of the corresponding datasets. The user selects a set of data and then defines how to combine this data for their specific needs. The system manages this process using a job queuing mechanism which fetches the source data and caches it locally, then creates the custom dataset using data specific combiners.

Jobs are created by end users who need to create custom datasets from the various source imagery. These jobs are managed independent of the source imagery but inherit the same access rights. These jobs can also be ingested into the system as new source elements.

The resulting job can then be provisioned to the desktop using one of several supported data distribution mechanisms.

 

What search options are available to the user?

The search feature enables end users to define an AOI (Area of Interest) using one of several methods:

an interactive map;
lat/lon or UTM upper right, lower left coordinates;
worldwide gazetteer;
predetermined grid (such as USGS 1:24k, USNG, etc.);
GPS single point with width and height;
ESRI shapefile;

 

What selection options are available (format, projection, tiling, media, etc.)?

EarthWhere™ supports the following input formats in native datum and projections.

Input Formats
ESRI ArcGrid - ASCII
ESRI ArcGrid - Binary
General Raster (BIL Interleave by Line)
GeoTIFF - Strip
GeoTIFF - Strip Bands Separate
GeoTIFF - Tiled
GeoTIFF - Tiled Bands Separate
GeoTIFF (n-Band support)
GeoTIFF - indexed (USGS DRG's)
TIFF with TFW Option
USGS DOQ - First Generation
USGS DOQ - New Labeled
ERDAS.img
GeoJPEG2000
USGS DEM
ADRG
CADRG
CIB
NITF 2.0 and 2.1 (RPC)
JPEG with JGW
Vector (Shapefiles)

EarthWhere™ can output the following formats in the chosen coordinate system (datum and projection):

Output Formats
ESRI ArcGrid-ASCII
General Raster (BIL Interleave)
JPEG
TIFF
GeoTIFF-Strip
GeoTIFF-Strip Band Separate
GeoTIFF-Tiled
GeoTIFF-Tiled Band Separate
ERDAS.img
GeoJPEG2000
Vector (Shapefiles)

Supported Output Projections include:
Albers Conic Equal Area
Geographic (Equal Distance Cylindrical)
Lambert Conformal Conic (with LCC options)
Universal Transverse Mercator (with UTM Zone Support)
Transverse Mercator
State Plane

Supported Output Datums include:
NAD1927 CONUS
NAD1927 NADCON
NAD1927 CONUS (formatted for ERDAS)
NAD1983 CONUS
NAD1983 NADCON
WGS1972
WGS1984

 

Can EarthWhere™ be integrated with other applications, such as order entry, fulfillment, billing, and so forth?

The EarthWhere™ Product tables can be accessed via ODBC calls that can be accessed by third party back office functions.

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What must take place for the software and hardware installation to be complete?

1) Data Workflow Assessment - Requirements Definition
2) Hardware Install
3) Hardware Configuration and Integration into current infrastructure
4) Software Install
5) Software Configuration and Optimizing for client The above processes are normally completed within a 3 to 6 week period.

Will SANZ support customization of EarthWhere™ for a specific application?

Yes under a SANZ Professional Services Contract.

 

What phases are involved for implementation and training?

1) Data Workflow Requirement Review
2) Data Ingestion and Systems Administration Training
3) User Training The above processes are normally completed within a 2 to 4 week period.

 

Could you provide two locations where EarthWhere™ is currently implemented?

DigitalGlobe, Longmont, CO
The United States Geological Survey, Rocky Mountain Mapping Center in Lakewood, CO

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Support and Service

Please outline your support schedule.

Program Product support is provided via direct contact with SANZ support engineering during the business hours of 8AM and 5PM Denver time, Monday through Friday (9X5), excluding nationally recognized holidays. Program Product services shall consist of SANZ making a good-faith effort to diagnose any reported software defects to SANZ Licensed Program Products. Further, SANZ shall supply any defect correction in the form of work-around, patch, or corrected code in a maintenance update version. SANZ may also provide information such as corrected documentation, identified restriction, or clarification of function. Program Product Services also include the supply of updated versions of the Program Products covered in the service plan. The updates may include periodic corrections made in response to any other software defect detected by SANZ as well as forecasted enhancements to the Program Product.

The EarthWhere™ support and development team is located in Castle Rock Colorado.

 

How are emergency fixes handled?

SANZ will provide commercially reasonable efforts to attempt to assist Customer or Customer authorized agent in problem isolation efforts.

 

What assistance with hardware and the system's operating system are available?

EarthWhere™ is provided in three offerings:
EarthWhere™ Server (Software Only. Customer provides the Server and storage)
EarthWhere™ System (Software and Linux Server. Customer provides storage)
EarthWhere Enterprise Series (SANZ provides complete system and provides software and hardware support).

 

Are the specific customer interfaces and custom programming supported?

The API layer support is provided in the EarthWhere™ Software Maintenance Agreement. Any custom programming support will be documented in the Professional Services contract for that specific Statement of Work.

 

Are all new releases, enhancements, updates, and "fixes" provided to the user as a part of the support/maintenance fee?

"Release" shall mean modifications to a Licensed Program Product that does not cause a change in the model number and may add functionality enhancement. If and when created, new Releases are available from SANZ upon request and are generally provided at no additional charge.

"Version" shall mean modifications to Licensed Program Product that add significant functionality enhancement and cause a change in the model number. A new Version may have an upgrade Recurring License Charge (RLC), a new Initial License Charge (ILC) and a new Recurring Support Service Charge (RSSC).

Recurring License Charge (RLC). In all cases involving RLCs, payment of such license charge also entitles Customer to received Program Product Services as described under the Warranty period herein.

Recurring Support Services Charge (RSSC). In the period after warranty for a Licensed Program Product, Support Services are available through a RSSC as specified on the schedule and defined herein.

Charges such as the Recurring License Charge and Recurring Support Service Charges as specified on the schedule will be invoiced in advance. After the first 12 months from the ILC, SANZ may adjust periodic charges.

 

Please describe the availability of support to interface, add new applications, modifying systems, and correct previously unidentified problems.

Phone Support
Program Product Support Services Customers will have telephone access to SANZ technical resources from 8 AM to 5 PM Mountain Standard Time, Monday through Friday, excluding nationally recognized holidays, in the event they are not able to resolve a Program Product issue on their own. Customers that call SANZ are connected to a technical analyst who will assist the customer with problem isolation, technical questions, or operational assistance with the Program Product. For incidents that cannot be resolved on the call and indicate a potential defect with the Program Product, a unique incident number will be opened and provided to the customer. The customer may then obtain status on the incident via the telephone support or via the Internet reporting vehicle.

Internet Support
SANZ Program Product Services provides Internet access to SANZ's Incident Managing system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24X7), subject to periodic downtime for maintenance or other reasons. This facility allows viewing of technical information and incident status, technical bulletins (Tech Tips), and online documentation. In addition, specific Program Products may also provide code fixes, patches, or revisions that can be downloaded and installed on the customer system. Customers may also open incidents (problem report) and track the status of the incident as SANZ Support Engineering works on the incident. Customers may also open Request-for-Change (RFC) entries for the Program Product. A RFC entry does not report a product defect but reports a request for a change to the product. This feedback is direct customer input SANZ will consider for future enhanced versions of the Program Product. Access and use to the Incident Managing System is via a Customer Identification Number (CIN) and password. Customers purchasing SANZ support services are automatically issued a CIN and password.

 

What will SANZ do if there is a system crash?

If the system crash is related to the EarthWhere™ software, SANZ will work with the customer as a top priority to fix the problem. If the crash is due to hardware or system software, the customer will rely on the service agreement with the hardware and/or system software vendor for support.

 

Is there a troubleshooting manual that the Administrator can follow to reduce the need for service calls?

Yes. The manual is included in the online documentation.

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Describe EarthWhere™ support enforcement of security policies?

The system supports the concept of an Access Control List (ACL) for each data element in the system. The ACL contains one or more user groups. Each group consists of one or many users and users can be a member of one or many groups. Within a group, each user can have one of three access levels:

NONE
No access to the specific data element

Read Only
Can view the bounding rectangle and the thumbnail only

Full
Can view and process the imagery to create a result
All derivative products from a data set inherit the same access restrictions as the source data element.

 

How does your system's security relate to the security system provided by the underlying operating system?

EarthWhere™ uses Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) that authenticates valid users and passwords with the customers network domain server.

How are passwords changed in your system?

EarthWhere™ uses Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) that authenticates valid users and passwords with the customers network domain server.

 

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How is EarthWhere™ priced?

EarthWhere™ Software pricing is based on (1) the Number of Concurrent signed on Users, and (2) the Number of Terabytes under management.

Is the EarthWhere concurrent User License based on "named users" or "number" of users"?

Our system is based on the "number" of concurrently signed on users. The same user name could login twice and check out the use of two keys. If the customer only had 2 keys, the third attempt to access would be denied until one of the other license keys is checked in.

EarthWhere uses a third party license manager made by Rainbow Technologies (Sentinel LM...see: http://www.rainbow.com ). Their product is extremely flexible and licenses can be configured in a wide variety of ways. For instance, we can issue a 60 day, unlimited user license if we desire. After 60 days, any attempt to use our core library, from any machine, will be denied with an appropriate lockout message.

The license manager works as follows:

1. The EarthWhere software (core library and web apps) is installed at the customer location.

2. A daemon Java service is deployed to any available (one) server at the client’s location (Windows, Unix, Linux).

3. At EarthWhere World Headquarters, the EarthWhere Product Manager uses a Windows GUI (provided by Rainbow) to generate a license file (.lic) for n number of users for company X.

4. The license file is emailed to the customer and the customer system administrator places the file in a directory near the Java daemon.

5. When the user logs into an instance of the core library, the api connects to the daemon service and requests to check out a license.

6. The daemon service reads the encrypted license file (.lic) and determines if there is a license available. If it is valid to issue the license, a license key is generated and returned to the api.

7. The license key is stored in a credential object that is required by all other methods in the api.

8. Each time a method is called that touches the database, the api refreshes the user license by passing the key to the daemon.

9. If a license key is not refreshed within n number of seconds, the license key is invalidated by the Java daemon and a new key is made available to the pool again.

10. The license is checked in through the api when the user logs out and a new key is made available to the pool.

The reason for the refresh is to make sure that licenses are not held by machines that crash, or browser users that don't use the logout button on the ew web apps. The refresh timeout value is configurable from the database. For web applications we set this to be the same as the web page session timeout (20 mins). That means that if a browser is idle for 20 mins then the session will be invalidated by the web server and the license will get checked back into the license pool. For windows apps, it is up to the developer to determine how long they want a user to be valid for. Most likely it will be more in the terms of 60 secs for a windows app. But it can be as long or short as they like.

The daemon service will only run on the server that is designated by the customer when the license file is created. The license file contains machine specific identifiers if desired (which we do). If the customer attempts to install the Java daemon on another server, it will not run. The customer must call SANZ and have us modify the existing license file to reflect the new machine identifiers.

 

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Will SANZ represent that drive space, memory, and processor specifications provided during the implementation-planning phase will support the proposed system for a minimum of three years?

This will depend upon the completeness of the system requirements. If the requirements are fully understood and documented, SANZ will propose a system configuration that will satisfy the short-term as well as the long-term (3 years) requirements.

 

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How can your platform support multi-facility locations? How would these facilities be connected?

EarthWhere™ can be implemented in a distributed environment. More detail on the specific distributed system requirements would need to be understood before connection options can be recommended.

 

What networking and communications protocols does your system use? What interface language does your system use? What language(s) were used to develop the application?

The raster files are mounted to the EarthWhere™ server via NFS. Communications can be through HTTP or HTTPs. The application was developed in Java and C++.

 

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General Technical Questions

What online user help facilities are included in your system? How much written documentation is provided?

Online help includes user and administration manuals, training exercises and tutorials, an extensive glossary, as well as primers. Written documentation can be printed as required.

 

How much of your user and system documentation is accessible "online." If it is not online, how is it accessed?

All of the user and system documentation is provided online and delivered with the system.

 

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General Support and Service Questions

What database(s) is used in your product?

EarthWhere™ is delivered with MySQL but supports ODBC connections to any standard database (Oracle, etc). The raster data is not stored in the RDMS. EarthWhere architecture enables implementation with other SQL databases as necessary.

 

Does EarthWhere™ need to be taken down for periodic maintenance?

The normal upgrade schedule is semiannually for major releases and as needed for minor releases. Normally, it takes about 20 minutes to upgrade the system.

 

Is EarthWhere™ extensible via Web services (XML)?

Yes. EarthWhere™ is also delivered with a documented API.

 

Does EarthWhere™ provide reporting tools?

Yes, online data reports, user reports, as well as ad hoc reports can be generated via ODBC connection.

How much of your user and system documentation is on-line?

All of the user documentation is online. It is also offered in hardcopy.

What is the procedure for requesting product changes?

Online technical support (bug reports and function requests) may be directly entered. The EarthWhere Program Manager will receive these requests and process accordingly.

What is the committed response time for telephone and on-site support?

Program Product Support Services Customers will have telephone access to SANZ technical resources from 8 AM to 5 PM Mountain Standard Time, Monday through Friday, excluding nationally recognized holidays, in the event they are not able to resolve a Program Product issue on their own. Customers that call SANZ are connected to a technical analyst who will assist the customer with problem isolation, technical questions, or operational assistance with the Program Product. For incidents that cannot be resolved on the call and indicate a potential defect with the Program Product, a unique incident number will be opened and provided to the customer. The customer may then obtain status on the incident via the telephone support or via the Internet reporting vehicle.

How many concurrent users will the product support?

To answer this question, we would need to know your response time requirements. The number of concurrent users depends directly on the size of server and system resources. We have installations with 20 users on a 4 CPU Intel Xeon server providing satisfactory response time.

Can users identify areas of interest and then indicate the data processing levels?

Yes. Processing levels may include Spatial Resolution, Area of Interest, Coordinate Systems (datum and projection, blending and mosaicking.

Does EarthWhere™ facilitate ordering, tracking and delivery?

The EarthWhere™ Product tables can be accessed via ODBC calls that third-party back-office functions can use.

Can the products (post processing of imagery) be shipped off-line?

Yes.

Can you handle vector data?

Yes.

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