NRMAH0002200865 Statement of Need RFQ.docx

STATEMENT OF NEED

PURPOSE:

The visualization of data is a key function in the analysis and inspections of the vast volume of environmental data collected by NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). Data visualizations can be done using scientific analysis software (PyFerret, MatLab), common productivity tools (MS Office, Google Sheets) or with libraries intended for web hosting. PMEL utilizes all these tools, and the most dynamic and changeable of these are the frameworks, libraries and server infrastructure used for developing, presenting and hosting on web pages. To establish this capability at PMEL we will purchase developer licenses to a specific platform and library that meets PMEL needs and ensure the interoperability of the data used.

The purpose of this purchase is to provide PMEL scientists and scientific developers with a uniform server, development, API and Notebook library environment for interactive scientific data visualizations.

PMEL will purchase 6 developer licenses to the Plotly Dash Enterprise application to develop data visualizations of PMEL and NOAA collected environmental data. This framework provides developer access and vendor support to these capabilities:

· The proprietary Plotly Dash Enterprise server. This server facilitates rapid deployment of web pages that host interactive scientific data visualizations.

· The proprietary Plotly Dash Dashboard Engine. The Dashboard Engine facilitates drag and drop functionality to lay out data dashboards.

· The proprietary Data App Workspaces. Workspaces facilitate the migration from Dash webpages to data notebooks. Data notebooks as a key component of the Open Science elements of future scientific integration.

· Open Source Plotly visualization JavaScript and Python library. This is the library used to render interactive data visualizations on webpages and scientific notebooks. This is open source which allows easy migration to other, non-licenses applications.

· User support. Full developer and user support from plotly Inc.

This Dash Enterprise server infrastructure will be deployed on NOAA-owned commercial cloud. PMEL Scientific developers will use the proprietary development environment to develop Dash data visualization web applications that will be used internally at PMEL, and some that will be exposed publicly for interactive visualizations for non-PMEL and non-NOAA scientific collaborators.

DELIVERY SCHEDULE:

30 days from date of award. Licenses are good for one year from date of electronic delivery.

SCOPE:

This acquisition will support NOAA and PMEL’s scientific mission in providing cutting edge capabilities to NOAA scientists and developers at PMEL.

Enterprise excellence will be advanced through the use of a uniform platform, seducing development and data friction, thereby reducing the time between data acquisition and data analysis.

Enterprise excellence will be enhanced through cost savings in development time, and optimized on- premise software support.

BACKGROUND:

Presenting data as visualizations is an important element of scientific exploration. Presenting visualizations as interactive web-hosted and scientific notebook visualizations further adds to the utility of these visualizations. Scientific developers are constantly looking for the best library to develop these visualizations in. We will standardize this platform to a standard Python and Javascript scripting language library for use by PMEL developers.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

· 6 Full software developer licenses

· Rapid deployment frameworks to Web server for hosting Dash data visualization dashboards

· Dash framework enable development environment

· Drag and drop web hosted data dashboard development

· Core support for Plotly JavaScript and Python libraries

· Integrated Vaex dataframe data model framework

· Allows on-premise installation

· Included support for Commercial cloud installation

· Software developer ticketing system and support

· Git integrated development environment

· Accept data from ERDDAP data server.

· Full functionality does not require any proprietary data storage.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:

· Accept data from ERDDAP data server.

· Full functionality does not require any proprietary data storage.

· Data visualization elements should be open source.

POINTS OF CONTACT:

TBD