Microsoft partner Versor has planted the seeds of a new data analysis system for the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.

The Melbourne-based consultancy has been tasked with developing a new cloud-based data and analytics system to help track the flora and fauna of East Trinity Preserve, a natural wetland in tropical north Queensland.

The ministry had identified the reserve as a good candidate for its data and analytics project designed to demonstrate the value of breaking open data silos.

Since the remediation of the East Trinity Reserve began in 2001, the ministry has collected data every ten minutes from sensors located at 15 stations. While in possession of all the data, the ministry said it is often siled and difficult to analyze.

To make it easier for scientists to use the data, Versor has started pushing scientific data into Azure Data Lake where it is cleansed using Azure Databricks and turned into an SQL database, which is then available for analysis. using Power BI.

The data project, which was rolled out in about two months, reportedly saved the equivalent of half a full-time employee’s effort.

Currently, only two of the 20 years of data from the East Trinity Preserve have been loaded onto the platform, with 18 more to follow.

The workload indicates that once the system is in full production with all the data loaded, authorized scientists will have unrestricted access to the data and tools that greatly simplify analysis.

Michelle Martens, Queensland Land Resources Officer, said the project will make data accessible to a large number of people and make a big difference by “struggling” with the hardware.

“There were existing environments in place that the guys are using. But a lot of it was manual work in that regard, ”added Nigel Rablin, senior consultant at Versor. “Pretty much Michelle and the groups around her over the past 20 years have been collecting and analyzing data with every tool they can get their hands on. So obviously they can only analyze a limited amount of data at a time.

As a result of the East Trinity pilot project, there are plans to expand the strategy to support the entire science division.

Last year, Versor also helped BlueScope Steel in its “data-driven” digital transformation efforts by revamping its data warehouse and analytics platform.

The company leveraged its experience with Databricks, as well as its expertise in Azure Synapse Analytics, to build a data warehouse and analytics platform for the steel supplier.

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