Particular effort is directed toward rural governments. CAST's director, Fred Limp, pointed out that rural county governments often have critical need for spatial technologies, but have a low tax base or a low technology base. When operational, the system will be accessible via the Internet or intranet, using any geoprocessing software supporting OpenGIS interfaces, a standard being developed and supported by major vendors of GIS technology. When fully populated, SWAG will hold more than a terabyte of spatial data. SWAG combines spatial data from various systems in a single database environment that allows users to locate and access them, along with associated metadata, from specific categories, or domains, such as roads, elevations, infrastructure, etc.
Users can carve out a subset of data and insert it seamlessly in their own application.
They will also have the ability to seamlessly overlay vector images on small or large-scale raster images. Not Just Data Storage Farley stressed that SWAG is not a data store. If you throw an aggregation of data on a disk in a database, you have a data store. The difference between the two is driven by the amount of intelligence and domain expertise the interface presents to the user. In a data warehouse, an intelligent interface assists users in asking questions and getting information from a selected domain.