The development process of the YARIS platform requires regular discussions and decisions involving all the key stakeholders: the managers of the GoGIN components (Information systems, Training and Organisation), the Yaounde Architecture (YA) representatives and the IT consortium led by Zertive.
An important meeting was recently held in Lisbon on 13-14 September to identify and prioritise future developments to the existing YARIS functionalities.
The meeting, coordinated by the GoGIN IT Unit (led by Sérgio Bryton), gathered 18 participants: 5 from GoGIN, 3 YA technical representatives from ICC, CRESMAO and CRESMAC, and 10 from the consortium (Zertive, XSealance and Splendid Advice).
YARIS new user interface
The consortium has presented the concept for a YARIS new user interface, the prototypes will be defined within a working group coordinated by the GoGIN IT Unit with the aim of providing an intuitive user interface.
The possibilities to enhance YARIS features for crisis management were explored and possible options including standard data and operational procedures, workflows, reporting and recording/replay will be discussed within a specific working group coordinated by the GoGIN Organisation Unit (led by Christophe Deldique).
Integration and connection
The integration of YARIS with 3rd party systems is another important point of interest; an overview of the possibilities was presented, and it was decided to prototype the integration of complementary data sources in a way that does not disrupt the work of operators. However, two data sources are already integrated and/or tested: Skylight and Unseenlabs.
In view of reviewing the vessel classification criteria, several options were discussed, together with the information sharing features and will be addressed with the “YARIS new user interface”.
Regular analysis of connection statistics is carried out by the GOGIN-IT unit, based on the daily COMMCHECKs. With this assessment, GoGIN-IT and YA representatives are able to identify any issue and solve it as quickly as possible.
High secure environment
The YARIS platform runs in a high secure environment; the current access control mechanisms were explained, the reported problems assessed and secure solutions considered for future implementation.
The participants visited the present YARIS data centre (run by AHP), and received a detailed brief about all the technical characteristics (from physical location and security to power, fire extinguishing and HVAC capabilities), which triggered fruitful discussions about the characteristics of this type of infrastructure. They also visited a modular data centre to enrich the discussions of having YARIS and data deployed in the Gulf of Guinea region.
In conclusion, this meeting was very useful and fruitful. It linked the different GoGIN component managers, the representatives of the YA and the developers directly, thus facilitating the discussion and resolution of technical issues and more effective support to users.