The software requirements for the WSA implied by the above are new to WFAU - previous ad hoc solutions based on flat-file storage and limited interactive network access (e.g. as implemented for the SSS) are simply not scalable to WSA data volumes nor WSA user expectations. In fact, these new data volumes are new to UK astronomy generally, and this is one of the main science drivers for the AstroGrid project (http://www.astrogrid.org/; we expect AstroGrid studies to inform our development of the WSA).
The software requirements fall into the following broad categories: