For the last three years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been giving its data to five of the largest cloud service providers in an effort to increase public access, lower costs for the agency and potentially create new markets. Now, as the initial run nears its end, NOAA officials want to know if it’s working.
So far, NOAA officials have been able to determine:
- There is “a demonstrable unmet demand” for the data.
- The cloud technology and transmission methods work.
- Cost issues can be worked out.
- NOAA must keep a central role in the process to ensure public trust in data integrity.
- Integrating third-party cloud-based tools leads to more engagement than just posting raw data sets online.