ManTech to use SOA for geospatial project

ManTech International will use service-oriented architecture (SOA) to build an interoperable platform so that the Homeland Security Department, state and local government agencies, and private-sector organizations can share geospatial information and respond better to natural and manmade disasters.

Through a recently announced DHS contract award, ManTech will build an Integrated Common Analytical Viewer (iCAV) into a DHS geospatial infrastructure to allow the department and its government and industry partners to share their respective data and access it via standard Web browsers.

The contract's value was not revealed.

Development of the system is in response to the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7 mandate that requires DHS to identify and prioritize critical infrastructure and other key resources and protect them from terrorist attacks, said Mike Cosgrave, ManTech's Homeland Security Sector manager.

The iCAV facility means that none of the organizations providing the data needs to have any SOA capabilities, he said.

"It doesn‚t require the data to be modified in any way," he said. "We engineered the system so that the data can be ingested [through the iCAV system] and then shared across previously stovepiped systems."

In addition to designing and customizing the initial iCAV system, ManTech will provide mission-specific, near-real-time awareness support for dealing with disasters, such as tracking hurricanes and the infrastructures they threaten.

A version of the system is up and running, Cosgrave said, though it is up to DHS to decide when it goes public and when state and local government agencies can start using it.

Secret and top-secret versions of the system are expected to be implemented in the spring, he said.