Strategies for homeland security, Part 3
Read part one and part two of this tip.
In the previous tips, we took a look at the option of creating a massive, replicated data warehouse to address the needs of Homeland Security. In this tip, we'll look at the option of creating an indexing system.
Like a data warehouse, an indexing solution would be massive and would need to be redundant, 24 x 7, and responsive. While still presenting substantial challenges, it could be much smaller, and would have the benefit of a more rapid implementation. You wouldn't have the integration challenges, because the solution would not require that data be transformed to fit a standard data model. In fact, you wouldn't even need a standard data model. And the prototype for the solution is right in front of our noses: the Internet. The Internet already indexes massive amounts of data in HTML format. For Homeland Security, we would be indexing less data, but would have to update the indexes more rapidly.
There are a two primary technology options: we can publish the original data to HTML format and use existing search engine technology, (e.g., Google) or we can use technology that indexes and then provides
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access to the data in its original state. We may need to use a combination of both
techniques. Smaller systems can publish to HTML, and larger data stores can be indexed in place. In
both cases, the indexes must be continuously updated, with triggers and helpful pointers provided
by the source systems to the indexing platforms.
The disadvantages may come in data access: accessing the data in the original systems would increase the workload of those systems, and in some cases, may require expensive infrastructure upgrades. Use of OLAP and data mining technology may require that data be loaded into data structures required by those technologies, causing an additional step when used.
Next, we'll make our recommendations on which of the basic options to use, and what steps to take to get these critical systems online, for the benefit of the Homeland.
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This was first published in August 2002
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