iStore (The Information Store), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has developed the petroleum industry's first public cloud service offering.  The independent software vendor blazed new trails with the industry first Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 business solution which it has leveraged for its Windows Azure debut.  iStore has migrated key code and components of its flagship PetroTrek Digital Oilfield solution from SharePoint 2007 onto the cloud and has developed an entirely new approach for creating secure data mashups online. 

Windows Azure has opened new markets and revenue channels for the company with the public cloud's paradigm-shifting economic model.  Azure has enabled iStore to accelerate delivery of Digital Oilfield solutions by providing a single, unified development and deployment platform.

Figure 1 - iStore's Digital Oilfield Online cloud architecture.

Solutions delivered via iStore's online service will make it easier for petroleum companies to organize data types that makes sense to their business  and enables a wide array of data sources to be accessed and integrated in the cloud, supporting information-centric asset management, KPI dashboards, joint venture collaboration, and production monitoring.

iStore is collaborating with its partner, CSC, who is assisting the company with performance engineering, security auditing, and the commercialization of its Azure solutions.  CSC, a Windows Azure Technology Adoption Program (TAP) partner, is a leading systems integrator and innovator of cloud computing technology (visit www.csc.com/cloud for more information).

Software Services
iStore's Digital Oilfield Online cloud platform epitomizes the Software Services model.  The Software Services approach to information and application architecture enables on-premises data or applications to be mix and matched with online, cloud-based applications and data to fit the business purpose.

Digital Oilfield Online enables petroleum companies to leverage and extend the capabilities of multiple on-premises databases by remotely accessing and integrating it online.  Conversely, companies can leverage the new cost structure of cloud-based data storage to manage their data while consuming it with on-premises applications or mobile devices.

Rich Content and Mashups
iStore's Digital Oilfield Online Azure service offering features a rich set of data access and visualization components built with Microsoft Silverlight.  The company pioneered Silverlight data visualization in the petroleum industry with the development of interactive charts and viewers for oilfield data,  including the PetroTrek Time Chart which integrates multiple data sets into a single view for easy correlation of time-based events.

In addition to incorporating data visualization and document management into its Azure service, iStore will provide a rich set of oilfield content with the inclusion of IHS data.  IHS is the leading provider of quality well and production data for the petroleum industry covering over 3 million wells in the United States.  With the launch of Digital Oilfield Online iStore offers existing IHS data subscribers a whole new way to integrate and mashup their data using Bing maps for enterprise.

Open Data Standards
The Digital Oilfield Online Azure service will launch with a fully compliant open standards data model for storing a complex range of oilfield data types.  The solution leverages the breadth and depth of the Public Petroleum Data Model (PPDM) which consists of more than 1,700 database tables covering every aspect of industry business process and workflow.

Adoption of PPDM enables iStore to accommodate the unique data management needs of each Digital Oilfield Online subscriber while providing a long-term approach for data storage in the Azure cloud space.  And since data is stored in a common, interchangeable format, the solution gives customers a data exit strategy.  It also enables on-premises PPDM based software to access cloud-based data in a common format, facilitating interoperability within a Software Services model.

Customizable Data Security
Because technical and financial information is vital to its customers - finding and producing oil not to mention keeping their competitive edge and staying compliant - iStore is committed to delivering the highest levels of security possible in its cloud solutions.  To accommodate each client's security policy with the authentication method they require iStore has incorporated Microsoft Geneva Server into its Azure platform architecture.

Geneva is a key component to iStore's Digital Oilfield Online cloud platform.  The company has fully integrated Geneva into its Azure architecture which will give customers several authentication flavors to choose from.  This includes identity federation across Active Directory domains with single-sign-on, enabling online solutions to be seamlessly and securely accessed from behind the corporate firewall.