Every Silver Lining has a Cloud…

Stratus - more than in the cloud - it is a cloud.

It’s odd that for an industry as advanced and “cutting edge” as GIS and Location Intelligence is, that we have yet to truly embrace what is already a major trend in other IT areas. Perhaps we’re too busy squabbling around neo and paleo - two terms I particularly despise. But while there are a few people out there flying the flag of the future in GI, large parts of the IT industry has already got its “aas” into gear and is moving to SaaS. That’s – Software as a Service. If you’re new to this area, I’ll give a clear warning now – there’s a LOT of new acronyms heading your way. Not only that but you’ll find as people talk about data and software residing in “the cloud” they also develop some kind of hand twitch generally raising it in the air.

Whether SaaS is a solution fit for you or not – it is coming. And it’s almost guaranteed that some of your IT systems are already SaaS, and new ones you’re purchasing – there’s a good chance there will be a SaaS provider bidding.  It could be your email, your CRM or your asset management system.

As with everything there are pro’s and cons. Cost savings on infrastructure will be weighed up against how comfortable you are letting your data off site. Recently I read this article publish by the UK organisation Intellect which offers a great guide to the business benefits of SaaS. I highly recommend you download and read it. Perhaps moving on from that Matias Woloski published a great taxonomy for all thing SaaS related. Although initially daunting number of terms, it does relate to some of the names you may be more familiar with, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and a crop of Social Notworking site – Facebook, Twitter and so on.

Certainly “the Cloud” and “SaaS” are terms you’ll be hearing about with a number of governments starting up their own cloud environments, whether this is being done to alleviate security fears, or as a way of centralising and cost cutting is unclear but it is happening.

Either way Software as a Service is now a viable option, and of significant benefit to the GI industry. Our ever increasing demand for data – with less desire to manage and maintain it, and the increasing ability to consume up to date data via WMS or other tile servers, or even live information through feeds means we should be thinking long and hard about how we consume our applications. Our ever increasing needs for software to be upgraded quickly at low costs across many geographies again points to life in the clouds. I recall discussing with a customer many years ago who had a problem with a piece of technology. I told him that the problem was fixed and all he had to do was upgrade the software. The customer response was “I don’t want to upgrade my software”. That I believe is a catch 22!

I have no doubt that Software as a Service will transform the traditional GI industry, just as it already has transformed other areas already and with good reason. At a time where we all want low entry cost, lower total cost of ownership, lower risk, but higher functionality and more software vendors more responsive to our needs, there’s only one way to go.

I should warn of one other side effect of talking about this stuff and it seems to be some kind of 60’s throw back.

Life is looking pretty good in the Cloud – Man.

Chris M

Download the Intellect Paper here: Intellect Report