One of the most exciting trends in the mapping world right now is the convergence of mapping and cloud computing. For many years, only large businesses with dedicated GIS departments could afford the technology and expertise to utilize the power of mapping. But this year, we reached the tipping point where cloud GIS makes sense for almost any sized business. The cloud is making spatial technology – which businesses once saw as complex, time-consuming, and costly – simpler, faster to implement and less expensive than ever.

5 Reasons to Try Cloud-Based Spatial Technology
1. The cloud removes many of the obstacles of traditional GIS. GIS has always held the potential to improve efficiency, collaboration and decision-making in business, but at a high cost in technology and skilled experts. What’s changed in the last year is that, for a number of reasons, the model for developing mapping applications has switched to a cloud-based approach. We’ll be talking about this a lot on this blog, but the most important point is this – cloud computing makes GIS more affordable, faster to deploy, more widely available, easier to use, more flexible and more secure.

2. Cloud computing makes mapping much easier to implement and maintain. While large enterprises used to spend countless hours developing and maintaining mapping applications, with the cloud all they have to do is “turn it on” and it’s ready to use. Developers are now creating apps for businesses, and since those apps are cloud-based, they can be rapidly deployed. Cloud providers are also taking over the heavy lifting of updating data sets, so that businesses can just pull the data they need from the cloud. Development time is compressed from years to weeks, and maintenance time disappears completely.

3. Mapping in the cloud is more affordable. The most expensive part of the old world of GIS was getting the data, making the data to work in the application you built, and maintaining the data. That’s all changed as developers take on the tasks of finding the data, making it work and keeping it updated. Since developers can spread their cost among numerous clients, the costs are shared, and that’s great news for businesses’ bottom lines.

4. Using cloud geospatial services frees time to focus on what really matters – the user experience. With cloud services, businesses are freed from the arduous task of simply making the spatial technology work, and can focus instead on their own core competencies and making the spatial technology work best for their users. Many of these companies, for the first time, are able to focus on creating an intuitive and customized user experience to fit the unique user needs of their customer base. That benefit of the cloud, along with the increasing demand for mobile applications, is turning the spotlight directly on usability and simplicity, which is good for both customers and for businesses who want to serve them.

5. Mapping in the cloud gives you more options than ever. Like I said, I think the tipping point for cloud-based mapping happened earlier this year. Now that we’ve tipped, expect the pace of cloud-based spatial technology to accelerate. Google predicts that over the next ten years, virtually all technology innovation will happen in the cloud. For businesses, that means looking to a new breed of cloud-native spatial technology developers for an increasingly steady flow of cool new apps. Like the app world in general, now that developers have entered the market and businesses are liking what they develop, there’s an explosion of new APIs for data and mapping. The marketplace is demanding more, and I fully expect cloud-based developers to keep finding innovative new things to do with mapping.

My advice if you’ve been wondering if its time for your business to take advantage of the cloud – don’t be afraid to dive in. Cloud computing is not a flash in the pan. It’s here to stay and there are many reasons to start using it right now.

Learn More:

• Watch our recent webinar, The New Rules for GIS Success
• Read our article about high performance computing in the cloud