Cloud Will Dominate the GIS Environment

Cloud computing is on everyone's lips. And the same goes for Intergeo, which is taking place from 9 to 11 October 2012 in Hanover, Germany. Key topics at Intergeo, such as capturing, processing, archiving and presenting data, can be made available on an entirely new basis using cloud computing, unlocking a range of uses and making them more accessible to new user groups who have found existing solutions too complex and ultimately too expensive.

Otmar Didinger, president of the Rheinland-Pfalz Regional Authority for Surveying and Geoinformation, on how the cloud can benefit users as it solves the issue of how they can access information without having to worry about where it is located. Didinger cites WebAtlasDE. Regional Surveying Authorities in Germany are providing access to their geodata, which merged into a single standardised national inventory, form the basis of a web service. Similar to Google Maps, users surf a map covering the whole of Germany based on the very latest official data, presented in a more professional format. Authorities, companies and citizens can access the store of geodata at WebAtlasDE (e.g. via www.geoportal.de) and combine it with their own information. This creates an excellent basis for making a whole range of decisions relating to everything from infrastructure management to sales campaigns.

Johannes Schöniger was the man responsible for the ambitious aim of making a high-performance IT system, a cloud solution, available in a short space of time. As strategic account director Geoinformation Germany at Fujitsu Technology Solutions, he was certain of one thing in particular, being that cloud computing is a pioneering and sustainable operator model. He thinks we have to choose whether to actively engage with it and look to the future or not. He adds that cloud computing will dominate the GIS environment over the coming years.