Disaster Planning Scenario At GITA Conference Showcases Safe Software's Web-Based Spatial ETL Technology

Vancouver, B.C. - May 8, 2006 - Safe Software Inc. - the world’s leading supplier of interoperability tools for exchanging spatial data - today announced that the company had the pleasure of participating in a unique interoperability demonstration held on April 24 as part of the opening session of the Geospatial Information and Technology Association’s (GITA) Annual Conference 29.

The demonstration took the form of an entertaining and informative stage production that highlighted the effectiveness of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) open web services standards for sharing spatial data. OGC Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS) and GML standards were employed in a scenario that required real-time data sharing between Safe Software and nine other product vendors including Applied Science Associates, Autodesk Inc., Bentley Systems Inc., eSpatial Solutions Ltd., ESRI, IONIC Enterprise Inc., Intergraph Corporation, Oracle, and TELUS Geomatics.

In the first stage of the scenario, officials from the City of Tampa, Florida - the location for the GITA conference – were required to rapidly construct a proposal presenting Tampa as an alternative venue for the 2012 International Games. Safe Software’s FME®-based SpatialDirect® was used to read infrastructure and transportation data for the City of Tampa from the IONIC WFS server and distribute this data in GML, XML, and other formats required by the various map applications used by other participants. Using data provided by SpatialDirect in XML format, ESRI’s ArcGIS® Explorer™ was able to display existing infrastructure and roads. This served as the starting point for further analysis of the City’s water and road infrastructure to identify upgrades that may be required to host the 2012 Games.

SpatialDirect also played a key role in providing critical data during the second stage of the demonstration and showed the important contribution Spatial Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) technology can make to disaster response coordination. In this part of the scenario, an oil tanker collision supposedly occurred in Tampa Bay, resulting in an oil spill and toxic gas cloud which threatened coastal Tampa communities. This time, SpatialDirect made electronic navigation, logistics, and transportation data from the IONIC WFS server available to the other map application vendors. The data helped analysts to assess the disaster situation as it unfolded, provided a context within which to display their gas plume model projections, and allowed them to evaluate which evacuation routes and hospitals might be affected by the toxic plume.

“Safe Software was pleased to play a part in this innovative and successful demonstration,” said Don Murray, President of Safe Software. “Exercises such as this show how critical standards-compliant Spatial ETL technology is as a vehicle for sharing data between diverse systems.”

More about SpatialDirect
SpatialDirect is available as a stand-alone product or as a plug-in that enables spatial data to be delivered via web-mapping applications. Visit www.safe.com/spatialdirect for more information or a free product evaluation.

More about Safe Software
Safe Software Inc. is the industry leader in Spatial ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) technologies, providing spatial data sharing and transformation solutions, and professional services. Since 1993, Safe Software has focused on helping organizations enhance access to spatial data by providing software solutions that deliver seamless data format translation. For more information, visit www.safe.com.

FME and SpatialDirect are registered trademarks of Safe Software Inc.

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Media Contact:
Roger Aikema
Marketing Communications
Safe Software Inc.
(604) 501-9985 ext. 242
roger.aikema@safe.com

FME is a registered trademark of Safe Software Inc. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.