Data is a rapidly accelerating machine, with billions of data points being created every single hour. In fact, the modern movement to technology has caused such a rapid surge in the amount of data being created that it is reported that 90% of all data was produced in the last two years alone.
As data continues to flow from all areas of the world, it’s no surprise that geography has also become a potent source. Geospatial data, any data which comes from geospatial tools monitoring the world, has become essential to many businesses around the globe.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at geospatial data, demonstrating how it’s used in business and pointing towards why it has become so directly linked with the cloud. Let’s get right into it.
What is geospatial technology?
Anything that is related to the tools used for analysis or mapping of the Earth and the societies which live upon it would be related to geospatial technologies. This dates back to maps drawn in the prehistoric era, right up to the development of aerial photography in the 20th century.
As the tools that are used within geospatial research have become more complicated, the amount of data that is used to contain them has equally increased. With technologies like satellite mapping being constantly updated, the amount of data that this industry produces has reached an all-time high.
With these developments, the tools that are used to analyze the data produced have also been developed. Everything from cloud storage facilities to machine learning and artificial intelligence has all become involved as a part of the geospatial technology bubble.
Where is all this data stored?
Geospatial information, due to the sheer quantity of different possible sources that could be used, rarely arrives as one form of data. Everything from images to numerical information to sound bytes is recorded from all over the world from a range of geospatial tech tools.
While the vast pool of sources that generate geospatial data has led to the rapid development of human knowledge in this field, it has also ensured that data storage has turned into a primary point of thinking when developing geospatial knowledge.
To store all these varied data sources, data warehouses and lakes have become a go-to solution. For those that aren’t familiar, a data warehouse is a compendium for data, housing large quantities in a way that makes it easy to analyze and develop a thorough study.
As to fill the need for these online databases, cloud solutions have begun to crop up. If you’re directly searching for a cloud data warehouse, then you’re best looking at a comparison between Snowflake vs Redshift to find more details.
What is geospatial data used for in business?
Geospatial data is actually used frequently within government branches that are involved with urban planning, environmental studies, or transportation planning. Taking the former example, by leveraging geospatial data, an urban planner would be able to get a vast quantity of data about a specific area. With this data, they’ll then be able to plan the city that they’re building more thoroughly, knowing specific details like the relief of the area, rainfall quotients, and anything else they could find useful.
Within governmental aspects that involve anything to do with the land, geospatial data allows people to fast-track their work, with vital information being at their fingertips.
A more obvious use of geospatial data within business is map applications or companies that have map departments. For example, Google Maps brings the company $4.3 billion a year, a service that relies directly on continually updating geospatial data.
Yet, going beyond this, some businesses thrive specifically thanks to geospatial data. For example, if we look at businesses like Uber, which is a ride-sharing service that functions thanks to GPS, it becomes clear how integral these data sources have become.
Why is the cloud so important for geospatial data?
There is a direct connection between the use of the cloud and the development of geospatial data, with the latter relying heavily on the former. At the beginning of geospatial tool development, only small quantities of data could be produced. Due to this, storage was relatively easy, and local solutions could be employed.
However, three central changes have pushed geospatial data and tools to rely more on the cloud than ever before. We’ll be touching on:
- Globalization
- More demand, more access
- Business functionality
While each of these reasons is different, they stem down to similar principles – as geospatial data has become more useful and more comprehensive, more people want access to the growing piles of data.
Let’s break these down further.
Globalization
Globalization is a general term that describes the worldwide integration of governments, people, technology, and business. Due to the internet and the access it has provided for instant communication, it’s now easier than ever to share information with anyone, no matter where they are.
When it comes to geospatial data, globalization has pushed its need further than ever before. Nowadays, flight plans, transport tracking, and even the international post system all rely on geospatial data. The opening of international pathways has also led to the systems that monitor these pathways to increase their usability.
Due to globalization, geospatial data is being called upon every single day by companies around the world. With the huge quantity of data that is produced by all of these different companies turning to geospatial data solutions, it’s no wonder that larger, cloud-based storage solutions have become the norm.
More demand
The existence of important geospatial data published by companies around the world has driven the demand for pathways of sharing this data to continually increase. While data was once only stored locally, the cloud has given people around the globe access to a pool of online data.
Governments, individuals, and businesses alike are turning to geospatial data. Without the ability to simply travel across the world to local storage centers, the cloud has become the perfect solution.
As the cloud is an internet-based system, anyone can access it at any time. With this in mind, users are able to find the geospatial data they need online. With this rising demand, the desire for cloud solutions has similarly increased.
Business functionality
As demonstrated above, the world of business has accepted geospatial data with open arms, with some entire companies being founded upon the base of these data sets. As these industries have grown in complexity, they’ve expanded to new locations. With expansion comes a need to share data across large distances.
While local storage solutions could be a possible option, the cloud has also made data sharing easier than ever. Due to this, if a company needs to share any of its geospatial data with other branches, it can turn to the cloud to get this done.
In short, the cloud has become the go-to solution because it is the most simple, fastest, and most effective way of sharing geospatial data.
Final thoughts
Geospatial Data and the cloud have become inseparable. As the complexity, diversity, and scope of geospatial data expanded, the cloud has risen to provide an accessible and stable platform to house it.
From governments using geospatial data for urban planning to airline companies tracking their planes, the applications of these data sources are far and wide. As new uses for geospatial data are found, we can almost be sure that cloud data warehouses will be the central foundation upon which the data is collected, collated, and analyzed.
