Skip to main content

GIS & Cloud Computing

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” – National Institute of Standards and Technology defines Cloud computing like this.

Pioneers in cloud computing arena are Salesforce, Google, IBM and Amazon to name a few. Cloud computing enables organizations to scale down their investments for hardware and software. Maintenance costs are also reduced. There are several deployment models like public cloud, community cloud, hybrid cloud and private cloud.
Cloud storage is another widely adopted usage.  Service models include Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Typically in any cloud based environment application software, high capacity servers and storage platforms are hosted in a remote location in a secure manner. The end user usually has access to web-browser like interface from where he/she can carry out the assigned work. 

Given the advantages cloud computing has to offer, such facilities are also extended to the GIS domain. GIS Cloud (http://www.giscloud.com/) and Esri (http://www.esri.com/technology-topics/cloud-gis/index.html)  are leading providers of Cloud GIS.

GIS Cloud is a full feature web based GIS. It is available for free as well as pay-per-use model with advanced features. It works on Software as a Service (SaaS) model. GIS Cloud uses a map engine based on Adobe Flash for efficient vector rendering. GIS Cloud is capable of handling both raster and vector data. Widely used vector formats by Esri, MapInfo, Google Earth and raster formats like GeoTiff are supported. Prominent features include facility to organize and share projects, create and edit spatial and non-spatial data, import, analysis and export. Its also mentioned in the GIS  Cloud webiste that support for mobile devices will be coming soon.

Esri, through its widely used ArcGIS platform is providing excellent opportunities for organizations. Maybe since ArcGIS 9 release, a user is provided the facility to use online satellite imagery resources for reliable cartographic operations. ArcGIS 9.3.1 customers can even use Bing Maps with a license from Esri. This facility comes by default with ArcGIS 10. Other than this Esri provides preconfigured ArcGIS Server Machine Images  (AMI) for use with Amazon Cloud Infrastructure. There is another cloud based offering from Esri which includes access to full GIS capabilities.

Some of the cloud based GIS Service/ Software for enterprise usage -
  1. Skygone – http://www.skygoneinc.com/
  2. ERDAS Appolo on the Cloud – http://www.erdas.com/Products/ERDASProductInformation/tabid/84/currentid/3579/objectid/3579/default.aspx
Labels:

Comments

  1. jitendraThursday, February 24, 2011 at 12:11:00 AM GMT+5:30

    Is there any opensource GIS on cloud

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chethan S.Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 4:30:00 AM GMT+5:30

    There is OpenGeo Suite Cloud Edition (http://opengeo.thegismarketplace.com/), which provides on-demand deployments of OpenGeo Suite products hosted on the robust infrastructure of Skygone Cloud (http://www.skygoneinc.com/).

    The OpenGeo Suite is the complete, OGC standards-compliant web mapping platform for robust and scalable deployments. Built upon cutting-edge open source components—PostGIS, GeoServer, GeoWebCache, OpenLayers, and GeoExt—the OpenGeo Suite provides power and flexibility in one integrated package.

    The Suite includes high-performance implementations of WMS, WFS, WCS, and WMTS standards with a variety of output formats; great Google Earth connectivity; tile caching for Google Maps and tiling clients; and a user-friendly administration dashboard.

    The OpenGeo Suite also includes completely through-the-web map styling, editing, and publishing along with a powerful toolkit to easily build custom JavaScript applications.

    Source: http://opengeo.thegismarketplace.com/
    http://giscloudcomputing.com/home/2010/8/30/skygone-cloud-powers-open-source-web-mapping-suite-opengeo-c.html

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Turning off a Dell Laptop Monitor: Keyboard shortcut(s)

I am someone who is particular about power savings and I don't leave appliances powered on when not in use. The same applies to computing devices - be it a smartphone or a PC/Laptop. I power off the desktop monitor when I step out for a tea break or hit Fn+F2 on my Lenovo laptop that turns off the display. Recently, I got a Dell Laptop and I was surprised to discover that Dell does not provide any shortcut to turn off the display. This led to some exploration and I found two ways to achieve that which are outlined below - 
2 comments
Read more

Resolving INS-20802: Oracle Net Configuration Assistant failed error on Windows 10

I was all excited about the migration to Windows 10 until I had to install Oracle client 12.1.0.2 on it. The Oracle client installation used to fail miserably at the last stage with this error named INS-20802.
28 comments
Read more

SSL VPN: Configuring and Using Forticlient on Ubuntu, creating a Launcher

Is your primary OS at home Linux and do you use Windows only to connect to your work PC over VPN or to attend meetings?  Do you often wish to connect to your work VPN from a Linux PC?  If your answer is 'Yes' to the above questions, I have an answer if your workplace uses Fortinet SSL VPN. Note that it's possible to connect to Fortinet and other VPNs like Cisco VPN from Linux through the inbuilt network manager by installing additional tools but this post would focus on using the standard Forticlient for accessing the resources on your work network. Obtaining Forticlient The most important thing to note w.r.t. using Forticlient for Ubuntu (or any Linux distro) is to note that the client is not publicly available for download from the official website. You will have to ask your IT department to download the client for you, in case they haven't provided it.
2 comments
Read more