Newsletter 26 March 2020

News item | 26-03-2020 | 12:40

Delayed deployment of KNMI Data Platform and extension of transition phase

We, as well, are experiencing the consequences of the Corona crisis. As a result, we will be delayed for probably a month in the deployment and implementation of the new KNMI Data Platform. This shifts the date on when we set KDC permanently inactive.

The transition phase, that we wrote about in the previous newsletter, in which we run both KDC and KDP parallel, will not start at the end of March, but at the end of April 2020. The transition phase will also be extended by 2 weeks, it will last 6 weeks. This gives you extra time for converting data scripts, testing them and asking questions.

KDP progress

The development team of the KNMI Data Platform works as good as possible from home. As you may have noticed yourself, we also experience the challenges of working from home. We are working hard to make a test version available soon. We will include an example script that can be used to convert FTP/HTTP download to API download.

FTP service sometimes overloaded for Open Data users

The last few weeks we have received a lot of questions about the FTP server not working and if this is due to the transition to the new Data Platform. This is not the case. The download capacity that KDC can provide is limited and is shared with all KDC users. As a result, the system is sometimes overloaded, especially if many people download large sets at the same time (with automated FTP scripts). In case of an overload it can sometimes take a while before the system is rebooted (it is not a 24/7 system).

Also in the future it will not be possible to prevent overloading of the system, therefore additional measures are being considered to limit this as much as possible.

Take part in our survey

We want to further develop KDP in collaboration with our users. That is why you will soon receive a link to a survey. With this we want to give users a voice in the development of KDP. Any ideas or questions regarding KDP can be included in the survey or by sending an email to dataservices@knmi.nl.

Progress Radar API group

In the last 2 newsletters, we invited you to participate in the development of 'radar data API's'. We have now put together an enthusiastic Radar API group with whom we can get started. As it looks like now, we will start with this in April. We will organize a digital meeting in which the interested parties and our development team bring their knowledge together to create a good product.

Are you still interested to participate? Send an email to dataservices@knmi.nl with Radar API as subject and we will contact you to discuss this.