Cloud Opens GIS World

GIS touches everybody. During the 32nd Esri Users conference, held from 23 to 27 July 2012 in San Diego, USA, users were able to experience the full integration of cloud capabilities developed by Esri over the last several years. A wide variety of new technology was highlighted at the conference, and there was a strong sense that fundamental changes are afoot - the future for GIS is looking very exciting. Thanks to the latest developments in cloud computing within Esri software products, GIS is becoming relevant for an ever-wider community within organisations.

Maps, area imagery, crowdsourced data, social media and much more are coming together in the cloud. Non-geo specialists have increasing access to data and individual users can use their desktops, smartphones or tablets to exchange geospatial information with each other, making the disclosure of spatial information faster and easier. Over 15,000 participants could see how spatial updates were passed to Esri web maps. GIS is becoming a self-service activity within organisations and GIS will become increasingly embedded within organisations. As a result, geospatial information will reach a wider audience and users will also benefit from the advantages cloud technology has to offer. Advanced infrastructure allows more data storage, greater computing power and improved efficiency.

The support for Apple was very much welcomed by the audience. In order to bring spatial capabilities to a wider audience, Esri has also integrated the Esri web mapping solutions into Microsoft Office products. For example, data from an Excel sheet could be integrated into an Esri web map and then spatially viewed within Excel or migrated to other Microsoft Office products such as PowerPoint.

On the 50th anniversary of GIS, Esri demonstrated that GIS is more alive then ever and its influence on, and availability to, people right around the world is only set to increase.