There have been tremendous advances in the geospatial industry over the past few years — there is more demand for data and data analytics than ever before and we expect this demand to continue to grow. The demand is driving innovation and technical advances are enabling better imagery, faster ways to store and share it, and highly advanced analytical processes for putting the data to use.
Advances in integrating multi-source data collection and analytics are dramatically changing the usefulness of imaging data collected. Cloud services are also making vast amounts of data much more quickly accessible. Across our DigitalGlobe and MDA business units, we have an 18-year archive of high resolution optical and radar imagery. Thanks to advanced Cloud services, that data can now be accessed much more easily.
It’s only the tip
Geospatial data is an increasingly essential element of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, not just because of the demand for analytics rather than just pixels, but because of the power it brings to applications that facilitate the Internet of Things and the ability to track consumer, government and business behaviors. When combined with advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, Cloud computing, and even blockchain technology, geospatial data will have a broad impact on human endeavors starting with utilities, the insurance industry, agriculture, conservation and national defense.
The market for geospatial intelligence is only at its beginning and tools like machine learning and artificial intelligence are driving the next generation of capabilities. The demand for the analytics and real answers will significantly increase over the next few years and beyond. We are excited about the opportunities for growth in this area as we plan to integrate geospatial intelligence into the next generation of automation applications.
“Maxar Technologies was formed to address the ways the industry is changing and to enable the growing demand for answers that can only be derived from persistent, high-resolution imagery, and rapid and highly advanced data analytics”
Cost and ease of use are limiting factors for all technology advances. However, for geospatial data, significant progress has been made in both the areas. For instance, Maxar’s DigitalGlobe business unit provides direct Cloud-based access to a 100-petabyte optical imagery library. Our GBDX platform is a cost-effective subscription service for processing and analyzing geospatial data and allows users to build, access and run advanced workflows and includes tools that extract the important information needed from a Cloud-based, multi-source satellite image library to solve complex, global-scale challenges.
Rapidly evolving industry
One of the most significant trends we have seen is a lot of companies are developing their own geospatial capabilities, and collaboration and consolidation within the geospatial industry. This has been driven by the demand for answers. Our Radiant Solutions business unit has grown out of the acquisition of multiple companies with exceptional analytical capabilities. As a result, we can provide agile intelligence that helps national security analysts, operators and policymakers apply emerging technologies like machine learning and Big Data analytics to multiple sources of intelligence data to reveal geospatial insights that provide our nation a decision-making advantage.
Maxar Technologies was formed to address the ways the industry is changing and to enable the growing demand for answers that can only be derived from persistent, high-resolution imagery, and rapid and highly advanced data analytics. The combination of MDA with DigitalGlobe created the leading global provider of advanced space technology solutions for commercial and government markets. We provide integrated systems including satellites, earth imagery, geospatial data and advanced analytics. Our end-to-end systems capabilities and integrated solution expertise positions us extremely well to further reduce product development times and provide the world’s most advanced multi-source data collection, enrichment, and analytic capabilities.
For everything from satellite systems through to multi-source data collection, enrichment, and analytic capabilities that reveal unique geospatial information and insights, we are ready to meet industry demand where and when it matters the most. Our goal is to help national security and commercial organizations understand and navigate the changing planet and to integrate geospatial intelligence into the next generation of automation applications.
No other company has such strong roots in geospatial intelligence with our level of scale and commercial mindset. Our combined team of aerospace engineers, geospatial analysts, weather and ocean experts, software developers, data scientists, and DevOps engineers apply disruptive technology and our unique intellectual property to solve both national security and commercial problems. This is an industry that is rapidly evolving and Maxar is extremely well poised to advance the state of the art and to meet the demand for critical answers when they matter the most.
