Editorial

New thinking, new possibilities
Globalisation and the need for businesses to look beyond proprietary systems and be able to quickly adapt to changing technologies is stimulating a new thinking to adopt the cloud. Evidently, it makes sound business sense in streamlining the processes by using only the services one needs and at a time one needs them and save money rather than investing in storage infrastructure. The scalability, flexibility and continuity offered in developing applications with improved coordination are added feathers in the cloud cap.

Experts predict a mass movement to the cloud as inevitable. And if surveys and projections are to be believed, the cloud is the next big destination for all IT related services. Fears of reliability and security not withstanding, some believe the only hurdle is understanding the potential of the cloud.

So, when IT is embracing the cloud, can geospatial be far behind? The cloud has opened up plethora of services in geospatial domain including SaaS, IaaS and PaaS. The availability of different cloud scenarios including public, private, community and hybrid clouds is enabling several end user applications and focussed computing services to match a client’s need and choice previously unthinkable. The cloud surely is opening up the floodgate of possibilities!!

Bhanu Rekha
Associate Editor, Geospatial World
bhanu.rekha@gisdevelopment.net

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