Blueprint Technologies and Global Science and Technology (GST) Announce ECHO 6.0 - Web Services Solution for Earth Observation Data and Service Management; Latest Version of NASA Solution for Earth Observation Related Resources Fully Operational.

FAIRFAX, Va. -- Blueprint Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise architecture and iterative development solutions and services; and Global Science and Technology, Inc. (GST), a prominent science, engineering, and information technology (IT) company serving federal government and commercial clients, today announced that version 6.0 of ECHO, a web services-based solution developed for NASA, is fully live and operational.

ECHO enables a service-oriented architecture (SOA) based on a set of web-enabled, interoperable registries that create a flexible cyberinfrastructure for the Earth science community. ECHO is comprised of a set of web services that enable publication, discovery, understanding of, and access to a wide range of Earth observation data and services. With ECHO, stakeholders including scientists, educators, and governmental decision makers can easily publish and share key Earth observation data, leading to improvements in research and analysis, and societal benefits. The current version enables real-time publishing of information from across the globe and currently includes more than 60 million data items.

Release 6.0 of ECHO includes the initial rollout of ECHO's Extended Services Registry. This standards-based UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) registry allows partner organizations to publish their service offerings for use by the Earth Observation community. The Extended Services Registry provides a mechanism of interoperability between organizations who offer Earth Observation data, and other independent organizations who offer tools, algorithms, and models that utilize that data. With this capability, Earth Scientists have a basic infrastructure to build dynamic applications, leveraging resources from global partners. This version of ECHO also makes it easier for a variety of data providers to publish information about their data holdings to the metadata clearinghouse. There is now a framework for "Ingest Adaptors," in which any provider can plug in its specialized translation and validation rules for each type of data it is publishing.

"Global Science & Technology, Inc. is pleased to be a member of the NASA ECHO development team. ECHO is a web-based brokering system that enables information and resource sharing, and supports the development of user-friendly interface for users to browse and access Earth science data targeted to their own field of study. ECHO 6.0 has many new features that can serve a wide range of user communities in an effective manner," stated Chieh-san Cheng of Global Science & Technology, Inc.

"ECHO poses an exciting example of how technology can be used to solve real world challenges and create important foundations of change for generations to come," stated Jeanne O'Kelley, President and CEO of Blueprint Technologies. "Indeed, what makes this particularly relevant is the use of Web-services technology that can be applied not only within the geospatial realm, but across numerous sectors including homeland security - making any set of data easier to record, access, and share."

About Blueprint Technologies

Blueprint Technologies is an enterprise modernization firm that specializes in translating business requirements into architecture-based solutions. Blueprint's teams of experienced enterprise and solution architects modernize business services and IT capabilities more quickly and with less risk than its competitors by generating an executable architecture that provides integration and interoperability among business processes and IT services.

Blueprint's architects employ an iterative, model-driven process and reusable assets to rapidly define, design, and align business processes and software services, and to automate executable architecture development. Blueprint's expertise includes the design and deployment of Service Oriented Architectures, based on industry-standard Web Service technologies. For more information, visit www.blueprinttech.com.

About GST, Inc.

GST, a $40 million company classified as a small disadvantaged business (SDB), was established in 1991 to provide Earth and space science, engineering, and information technology services to the Federal Government, industry, and academic clients, and international customers. GST offers an experienced, highly qualified team of professionals with a broad range of domain and discipline expertise in such areas as IT and network services, Earth science, meteorology, and satellite communications, performing full life-cycle development, engineering services, and technical support.

In addition to its work on behalf of commercial and other Federal Government clients, since 2000 GST has provided space and Earth science and engineering services to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and has managed peer review and outreach initiatives for NASA Headquarters. GST is a recent awardee of a Department of Commerce COMMITS NexGen Contract. GST received the 2003 Goddard Space Flight Center Contractor Excellence Award for Small Business Services, and was listed in Inc. Magazine's 500 Fastest Growing Companies in 2002 and 2003, Deloitte and Touche's Fast 500 for 2002 and 2003, and Maryland's Fast 50 for the last five years.