INT

Empowering Visualization

COMMUNITY BLOG
CONTACT US SUPPORT

OSDU

INT to leverage IBM, Red Hat Open Technologies to Enhance Efficiencies in Oil & Gas Exploration and Drilling Workflows

The latest version of INT’s data visualization platform, IVAAP, integrates with IBM Open Data for Industries, IBM’s hybrid cloud implementation of the Open Group OSDU data.

HOUSTON, TX — April 15, 2021 — INT today announced that IVAAP — a leading enterprise subsurface data visualization platform — integrates with IBM Open Data for Industries for Cloud Pak for Data built on Red Hat OpenShift. These open technologies will enable the upstream industry to visualize exploration and drilling data across hybrid cloud environments to drive efficiencies and speed decision making.

As the oil and gas industry undergoes unparalleled transformation, members of the value chain are seeking solutions to maximize digital opportunities across their operations. Data is a critical asset and when leveraged with artificial intelligence, can yield mission-critical insights and competitive advantage.  However, quite often, domain-specific data exists in silos — limiting workflow efficiencies that leverage data insights for real-time decision-making.

Today’s announcement focuses on open technologies for the IVAAP platform that remove these barriers:

  • IVAAP leverages IBM Open Data for Industries for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, a data platform enabling seamless integration of data sources with the flexibility to deploy across any infrastructure that leverages The Open Group OSDU Forum data standard. The Open Group OSDU Forum is an industry organization that brings together technology leaders, producers and members of the oil and gas value chain to build a data foundation based on data standards making subsurface data easier to find, combine, and use across geoscience workflows.
  • IVAAP integrates with IBM Open Data for Industries for IBM Cloud Pak for Data powered by Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading open source Kubernetes platform. This will enable INT customers to run IVAAP on-premise, unlocking speed and agility for local operations as well as remote locations through the cloud, yet all with one consistent architecture. This provides upstream operators greater value and flexibility for real-time operational decision-making, as well as consistency to the enterprise operations.

“We are extremely excited about the work we are engaging in with The Open Group OSDUTM Forum and our collaboration with IBM. For clients who manage hybrid cloud environments, our goal is to bring the technology to where they need it — in the cloud and in their locally hosted environment.”

— Olivier Lhemann, President of INT.

“Our collaboration with INT enables choice and flexibility in deploying subsurface data visualization across hybrid cloud environments. By leveraging IBM Open Data for Industries for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, INT and the oil and gas community can leverage an enterprise-grade, open-source platform based on the OSDU data foundation, improving access to subsurface data across any infrastructure, including public cloud, local country cloud and on-prem,” says Dariusz Piotrowski, Global Solutions Leader,
IBM Industrial Sector.

IVAAP is a sophisticated domain visualization and analytics platform that provides central access to data regardless of where it is — stored in the cloud and on-premise. Users can access, view, search, visualize, and analyze their subsurface data — wellbore, seismic, schematics, log, and more — in a web browser.

About INT:

INT software empowers the largest Oil & Gas (IOC/NOC) and services companies in the world to visualize their complex subsurface data (seismic, well log, reservoir, and schematics in 2D/3D). INT offers a visualization platform (IVAAP) and libraries (GeoToolkit) developers can use with their data ecosystem to deliver subsurface solutions (Exploration, Drilling, Production). INT’s powerful HTML5/JavaScript technology can be used for data aggregation, API services, high-performance visualization of G&G and petrophysical data in a browser. INT simplifies complex subsurface data visualization.

Read the press release on PRWeb.

For more information about IVAAP or INT’s other data visualization products, please visit https://int.flywheelstaging.com.

INT, the INT logo, and IVAAP are trademarks of Interactive Network Technologies, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.

Red Hat, the Red Hat logo and OpenShift are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries.

 

INT Supports The Open Group OSDU™ Forum Mercury Release with Advanced Domain Data Visualization in the Cloud

As a long-standing OSDU Forum Member, INT has worked closely with the OSDU development teams to ensure seamless integration of IVAAP visualization of OSDU data on all major cloud providers.

Houston, TX – March 24, 2021 – INT is pleased to announce our partnership with The Open Group OSDU™ Forum as part of the new Mercury Release. INT’s flagship data visualization platform, IVAAP, offers a unique way for operators to search, explore, interact with, and automate their data on OSDU in a single platform in the cloud. 

Developed by The Open Group OSDU™ Forum, the OSDU Data Platform is an Open Source, standards-based and technology-agnostic data platform for the energy industry that stimulates innovation, industrializes data management, and reduces time to market for new solutions.

For companies adopting OSDU, IVAAP is a powerful, fast, and cost-effective alternative to custom building an application or assembling multiple components to visualize domain data. INT partners with all major cloud providers that support OSDU — AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and RedHat OpenShift by IBM. And it includes multiple customization options, including an SDK to provide a complete, end-to-end visualization solution.

Olivier Lhemann, founder and president of INT, explains: “As more energy companies transition their data and workflows to the cloud, it’s more important than ever to have a common data standard. Our work with OSDU is critical to helping companies solve the challenge of interoperability, of viewing their data from a single application, eliminating silos and liberating workflows. IVAAP is a universal cloud viewer that significantly reduces time to market and accelerates the adoption of innovative technologies.”

To learn more about IVAAP and how it works with OSDU, visit INT.com/IVAAP.

Read the full press release on PRWeb.

About INT:

INT software empowers the energy companies to visualize their complex data (seismic, well log, reservoir, and schematics in 2D/3D). INT offers a visualization platform (IVAAP) and libraries (GeoToolkit) that developers can use with their data ecosystem to deliver subsurface solutions (Exploration, Drilling, Production). INT’s powerful HTML5/JavaScript technology can be used for data aggregation, API services, high-performance visualization of G&G and petrophysical data in a browser. INT simplifies complex subsurface data visualization.

About The Open Group

The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards. Our diverse membership of more than 800 organizations includes customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, academics, and consultants across multiple industries. For more information, visit www.opengroup.org.

INT, the INT logo, and IVAAP are trademarks of Interactive Network Technologies, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.

 

Open Subsurface Data Universe™ and OSDU™ are trademarks of The Open Group.

How OSDU Can Help Data Management

Discussing data management challenges with major oil companies, national oil companies (NOCs), and oil services companies over the last few months, we found that it is still quite difficult to find published metrics about their KPIs. During a recent conversation with an operator, for example, he shared that finding the right data for analysis could take anywhere from one to SEVEN weeks.

data-viz-geo-challenge
Source: Lee C Lawyer Chevron Chief Geophysicist Oil & Gas Journal Nov. 4, 1991, pp 51-52.

Whether afraid releasing this data might expose inefficiencies or simply that the data is proprietary, what is interesting is that this problem persists—multiple people doing the same checks, companies can’t find their data, and what they can find, they don’t trust. For most geologists and geoscientists, data validation—validating, correcting, and verifying data—takes between 30 and 90 percent of their time before they can even begin to use the data. This challenge has become a major blocker as they transition from human analysis to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to automate tasks and decisions.

The problems lie in how application systems have been built over time: in silos. To quote Teradata’s Jane McConnell in her recent blog post on OSDU, “Keeping data in separate systems with separate indexes, separate master data management issues, and often separate physical hardware, only means extra work, master data management problems, and unnecessary hassle when we try to bring the data together so we can analyze it as a whole.”

So, how do we fix it? OSDU data standardization with IVAAP data visualization is one approach.

What Is OSDU?

The Open Subsurface Data Universe™ (OSDU) Forum is an Industry Forum formed to establish an open subsurface Reference Architecture. OSDU is created around a simple idea: can you find, use, and trust your data? 

The objective is to move from a traditional model based on multiple types of data into a single integrated data model. The digital transformation approaches data as an asset that can be used throughout various stages of the workflow and applications, decoupled of the native workflow and application. 

data-viz-silos

The OSDU mission is to establish an open subsurface Reference Architecture as follows:

  • A cloud-native data platform reference architecture, with usable implementations for Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google GCP
  • Application Standards (APIs) to ensure that all applications (microservices), developed by various parties, can run on any OSDU data platform
  • Leverage Industry Data Standards for frictionless integration and data access

OSDU Value Proposition: Access and Acceleration

To increase data accessibility, data can no longer be kept siloed. Companies must now accelerate their digital transformation by taking advantage of the growing OSDU marketplace and the rapid adoption of new solutions using OSDU APIs.

osdu-environment
OSDU standardizes and secures data currently spread across applications in different formats.
 
The OSDU data platform architecture helps separate data from its native application—from the workflow and from the storage infrastructure. It is indexed, discoverable, and consumable. This evolution is critical as we automate analysis with AI, ML, etc. Digitalization requires consistency and confidence in all data and standards for data and metadata to take out the guesswork.

Improve Findability, Collaboration, and Data Exchange

To improve not only data management workflows, but also to increase collaboration across teams, the smart approach is to combine a common data standard (OSDU) and leverage enterprise viewer technology (IVAAP).

Data Standardization: Findability and Discovery

A common data standard improves findability, using powerful search engines to reduce time to find the right data from weeks to days. When possible, it leverages data lakes to access all data from a single repository or a hybrid model to aggregate data in place. Removing the bottleneck of ”person dependent” models means immediate access and data discovery with security at the object level.

Data Visualization: Collaboration and Data Exchange

The ability to view multiple sources of data in a single dashboard is a critical piece of the new data management workflow. It makes data exchange easier, enables process optimization and better QC, and translates to better visibility for KPIs. Enabling data selection directly from the search eliminates the need to move data, and aggregating data in a single, shared dashboard means faster collaboration and better decision-making.

Empower Better Data Management

Data management can benefit from a single point of access of all subsurface data, simplifying data exchange, sharing, and consumption. For data managers, OSDU can enable new technology solutions that aggregate data, simplify search, and improve discoverability. Paired with the right subsurface data visualization platform technology, OSDU can pave the way to automate tedious tasks, workflows, and analysis, ultimately providing quicker information to stakeholders for faster decisions.

For more information or for a free demo of IVAAP, visit int.com/products/ivaap/


Search, Access, and Visualize OSDU Data with IVAAP

INT and OSDU Collaboration

INT has been working with the Open Subsurface Data Universe™ (OSDU) consortium since the beginning of the OSDU forum in 2019. OSDU is a standard data platform for the oil and gas industry which will reduce silos and put data at the center of the subsurface community. INT made IVAAP available as part of the Demo release of the OSDU platform.
 

IVAAP: The Premier HTML5 Data Visualization Platform for OSDU

At INT, we worked closely with the OpenSDU team to assist with validating the platform and creating a robust framework.

  • Developers can deliver cloud-based digital solutions quicker than ever.
  • Using the powerful OSDU search and delivery API, IVAAP allows users to search, find, display, and analyze data on the fly, including log, trajectories, tops, seismic, horizon, and fault data.
  • Creating a common environment hosted in the cloud enables oil and gas companies to efficiently access massive amounts of data, reduce data silos, collaborate remotely, implement machine learning (ML), and lower the cost of operations.

search-data

Search and interact with different data types.

cloud-data

Access your data in the cloud from anywhere.

charts-viz

Visualize data aggregated from various data sources in one place.

 
 

With IVAAP on OSDU R2, you can:
  • Combine data on the fly from wells, seismic, and many other sources.
  • Use a microservices architecture, IVAAP supports industry data standards, including OSDU, PPDM, WITSML, and several commercial databases.
  • Enable user co-visualization.
  • Combine data types like real-time, historical, 2D/3D seismic, reservoir, and more in your web browser with IVAAP’s one-of-a-kind dashboard capabilities.

 

Request a demo for IVAAP today

 

What Is OSDU?

The OSDU Forum was created with the objective of enabling new cloud-native data-driven applications with seamless access to the full range of subsurface and wells data as well as supporting existing applications and data frameworks.

Separating data from applications is the core principle of the OSDU solution. The plan is to achieve this by developing a common data platform with standard public APIs and to involve global cloud hosting vendors to build working implementations that will:

  • Allow companies to focus on the truly differentiating part of business activities
  • Reduce the resource and cost burden of independently designing and validating a subsurface data platform
  • Influence and accelerate key reference components that will be the foundation of the upstream digital transformation.

The OSDU data platform will:

  • Enable secure, reliable, global, and performant access to all subsurface and wells data
  • Reduce current data silos to enable transformational workflows
  • Accelerate the deployment of emerging digital solutions for better decision-making
  • Create an open, standards-based ecosystem that drives innovation

View the official OSDU brochure.
 
 

An Industry Solution

The OSDU Forum will:

  • Publish a Reference Architecture: a cloud-native subsurface and wells data platform reference architecture with initial implementations by Microsoft® Azure, Amazon Web Services® and Google® GCP, with others expected.
  • Define Application Standards to ensure applications (microservices), developed by various parties, can run on the same OSDU data platform
  • Leverage Industry Data Standards for frictionless integration and data access

Business Impact

  • Reducing data silos: subsurface and wells data integrated and accessible in one data platform
  • Workflows in the cloud: user workflows seamlessly executed across the OSDU data platform, taking advantage of powerful cloud-native solutions
  • Access to all metadata: users will have access to powerful search capabilities
  • Competition and cooperation: software vendors, oil companies, academia, and open community projects can develop software on the OSDU data platform
api_design

Scope

Current Scope

  • Coverage: any organization with a need to store, manage or analyze subsurface and wells data
  • Portfolios: subsurface including exploration, development, and wells
  • Support for Data Driven Applications: All data in one Data Platform will enable AI (such as Machine Learning) based applications to access this data

Current Problem Statement

  • Data is linked to applications: we are not data-driven but applications-driven and, therefore, we will have silos
  • Data is stored in silos: therefore, there is no lineage between data sources or from wells back to exploration
  • Metadata is not stored with the data: metadata is information about the data
  • Limited/no search capabilities: since we have no metadata, we have no real search capabilities
  • Data set-up: not suitable for data-driven applications

 
OSDU Scope

  • All public cloud-based: provides unlimited scalability
  • All data for the data platform services loaded via the data ingestion services: extract metadata, data quality, etc.
  • Well-defined (RestFUL) APIs defining the access to the data platform services
    Applications: (micro) services-based
  • Information security: covering all elements with focus on data security
  • In-country solution: for those countries where we are unable to move data out of the country and where there are no cloud services
  • Support for legacy applications based on Microsoft® Windows or Linux® desktop

osdu_scope_image
 

What Is the OSDU Value?

The OSDU data platform will:

  • Revolutionize the industry’s ability to deliver new subsurface capabilities
  • Create an open, standards-based ecosystem that drives innovation
  • Accelerate the deployment of emerging digital solutions for better decision-making
  • Reduce implementation and lifecycle costs
  • Eliminate current data silos to enable transformational workflows
  • Provide access to all metadata: users can access their data and applications wherever they are
  • Create new opportunities for monetizing intellectual property:
    • Moving to subscription models for applications or services sold by independent software and services providers
    • Opportunity for multiple competitors to sell specialized algorithms or workflows that are easily integrated because of compliance to OSDU standards

Membership

If you’re interested in becoming a member of OSDU today, click here, or for a full list of members, click here.

Ready to Get Started?

Request a demo of the platform chosen to visualize OSDU data.

Request a demo for IVAAP today

 
 

INT Brings OpenVDS Java Binding to the OSDU Community

Recently, INT announced our partnership with Bluware and our integration of Bluware’s OpenVDS format into IVAAP, our enterprise data visualization platform. We are very excited about this partnership, as well as our collaboration with OSDU. This new format was designed to empower users to browse seismic data in the cloud with high performance and lower cost.

If you are not familiar with its capabilities: OpenVDS is a cloud-native way to store seismic data in the cloud. Unlike SEG-Y, which is linear, OpenVDS data is broken into small objects and stored in the cloud object store to provide very fast access to any part of the data. OpenVDS is serverless and supports any type of seismic data, including pre-stack.

Here’s an example of how seismic data can be stored in the cloud:

seismic-data-cloud
Graphic courtesy of Bluware Corp.

 

But with OpenVDS, you have the option to store headers in the hot tier and trace data in the cold or cool tier (to restore as needed).

openvds-anatomy
Graphic courtesy of Bluware Corp.
 

Through our process of integrating this format, we realized that we could offer a bit more functionality to help more users adopt OpenVDS by offering also a JAVA binding option. Here’s a timeline of our process:

Late March 2020

After completing the VDS integration into IVAAP, we started work on OpenVDS compatibility.

Unfortunately, there was no Java binding for OpenVDS at the time. With Java being the most popular platform for complex web application backends, it seemed it would be profitable to all if the OpenVDS technology was easily usable in these environments.

Thus, we decided to bring our expertise to the community and started working on an open-source Java binding.

April 2020

Our expert team worked on the binding. After testing different approaches, we decided to avoid automatic binding technologies (Swig, …) and to write the JNI code manually.

This decision would allow us to ensure finer control over memory management, allowing us to reduce the cost of memory transfers between Java and native C++ worlds.

We also paid particular attention to the stability and error management since this library is to be used in server backends with huge uptimes.

May 18, 2020

We’re done! We are proud to announce that the work of our experts has been accepted and merged into the OpenVDS repository.

A special thank you to Bluware for their support and to Roman Matyaschuk, Ilia Mikhailichenko, and Camille Perin with INT for making this a success story.

For more information on IVAAP, please visit int.flywheelstaging.com/products/ivaap/