15 U.S.C. § 8518 — Computing resource efficiency improvement and annual report
submitted 9 years ago by Pub. L. 115-25 to r/title-15-COMMERCE-AND-TRADE · 530 words · no verdicts yet
When buying computing power, NOAA should favor multi-year leases over outright purchases when that's cheaper. NOAA may run pilot programs testing new computing technology, funded through 2023. NOAA must report every three years on its plans to upgrade weather-computing technology.
(a) Computing resources. (1) In general. When buying computing power — including high-performance and supercomputing technology — that NOAA needs for its mission, the Under Secretary* must, when it makes sense and saves money, weigh multi-year lease agreements against buying the hardware outright. (2) Acquisition. When making these leases, the Under Secretary must time the lease's end to land around (A) when the equipment is expected to start wearing out, or (B) when much better computing power is expected to become available to lease. (3) Pilot programs. (A) The Under Secretary may create pilot programs to test new or innovative information-technology services. (B) These pilots can only test services that (i) meet or beat NOAA's standards — for speed, cybersecurity, and reliability — or (ii) meet or beat similar in-house NOAA services from before the pilot started. (C) Congress authorized $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2019, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2020, and $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2023 for this work, available until spent.
(b) Reports. Within one year after January 7, 2019, and every three years after that — until six years after the first report — the Under Secretary, working through NOAA's Chief Information Officer and coordinating with the Assistant Administrator* for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the Director of the National Weather Service, must publish a report explaining how NOAA plans to (1) keep upgrading to the fastest, most powerful, most cost-effective high-performance computing for weather prediction; (2) balance research needs for next-generation models against the need for reliable operating models; (3) let forecasters, industry, and academic and government researchers beta-test next-generation weather models where appropriate; (4) use existing computing resources to improve research and operational forecasting; (5) use outside contracts for advanced weather-computing expertise, if needed; (6) use cloud computing; and (7) build a long-term plan to move weather-model code to modern, widely used programming languages.
In acquiring computing capabilities, including high performance computing technologies and supercomputing technologies, that enable the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration* to meet its mission requirements, the Under Secretary* shall, when appropriate and cost-effective, assess and prioritize options for entering into multi-year lease agreements for computing capabilities over options for purchasing computing hardware outright.
In carrying out the requirements of paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall structure multi-year lease agreements in such a manner that the expiration of the lease is set for a date on or around—
the expected degradation point of the computing resources; or
the point at which significantly increased computing capabilities are expected to be available for lease.
In order to more efficiently and effectively meet the mission requirements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Under Secretary may create 1 or more pilot programs for assessing new or innovative information and technology capabilities and services.
Any program created under paragraph (3) shall assess only those capabilities and services that—
meet or exceed the standards and requirements of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including for processing speed, cybersecurity, and overall reliability; or
meet or exceed, or are expected to meet or exceed, the performance of similar, in-house information and technology capabilities and services that are owned and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prior to the establishment of the pilot program.
There is authorized to be appropriated, out of funds appropriated to the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, to carry out this paragraph $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2019, $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2020, and $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2023, to remain available until expended.
Not later than 1 year after January 7, 2019, and triennially thereafter until the date that is 6 years after the date on which the first report is submitted, the Under Secretary, acting through the Chief Information Officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and in coordination with the Assistant Administrator* for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the Director of the National Weather Service, shall produce and make publicly available a report that explains how the Under Secretary intends—
to continually support upgrades to pursue the fastest, most powerful, and cost-effective high performance computing technologies in support of its weather prediction mission;
to ensure a balance between the research to operations requirements to develop the next generation of regional and global models as well as highly reliable operational models;
to take advantage of advanced development concepts to, as appropriate, make next generation weather prediction models available in beta-test mode to operational forecasters, the United States weather industry, and partners in academic and Government research;
to use existing computing resources to improve advanced research and operational weather prediction;
to utilize non-Federal contracts to obtain the necessary expertise for advanced weather computing, if appropriate;
to utilize cloud computing; and
to create a long-term strategy to transition the programming language of weather model code to current and broadly-used coding language.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 115–25, title I, § 108, Apr. 18, 2017, 131 Stat. 97; Pub. L. 115–423, § 5(a), Jan. 7, 2019, 132 Stat. 5457.)
- 2017Enacted · Pub. L. 115-25 · 131 Stat. 97
- 2019Amended · Pub. L. 115-423 · 132 Stat. 5457
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 115-25 on 2017-04-18.
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