A generic web cache infrastructure for the provision of multifarious environmental data

Abstract

As a basis for the efficient data supply for web portals, web-based and mobile applications of several German environmental authorities, a microservice-based infrastructure is being used. It consists of a generic data model and a series of corresponding generic services, e.g. for the provision of master data, metrics, spatial data, digital assets, metadata, and links between them. The main objectives are the efficient provision of data as well as the use of the same data by a wide range of applications. In addition, the used technologies and services should enable data supplyasopen (government) data or as linked data in the sense of the Semantic Web. In a first version, these services are used exclusively for read access to the data. For this purpose, the data are usually extracted from their original systems, possibly processed and then stored redundantly in powerful backend systems (“Web Cache”). Generic microservices provide uniform REST interfaces to access the data. Each service can use different backend systems connected via adapters. In this way, consuming components such as frontend modules in a Web portal can transparently access various backend systems via stable interfaces, which can therefore be selected optimally for each application. A number of tools and workflows ensure the updating and consistency of the data in the Web Cache. Microservices and backend systems are operated on the basis of container virtualization using flexible cloud infrastructures.