Stepping Into The Brave New Cloud Enabled Mobile GIS World

Cloud and mobile technology are ….

Confusing and complicated.

Hard to fit into “how we have always done things”

Difficult seeing and demonstrating the benefits to management.

We have heard these responses and many more from clients. Stepping into the brave new cloud enabled mobile GIS world is hard. But the benefits are considerable.

In this blog we’ve spoken many times about the new GIS paradigm we have entered; driven by cloud technology and the popularity of low cost smartphones and tablets.

But just like the move from desktop to Web, it has been hard for GIS practitioners to make the giant leap to the cloud and mobile. And yet both technologies change the game dramatically. GIS technology is now accessible to all. More than that, it is being being demanded by all!

Every mobile device has built in GPS. Users want questions to answers about what and who is around them. GIS has those answers and much more.

The Brave New Cloud Enabled Mobile GIS World

So what about this cloud mobile technology, what’s the big deal? Our list of benefits include:

1) Simple data and map publishing through cloud based platforms like ArcGIS Online. Limited knowledge of GIS is needed to publish great looking maps.
2) Data access control – many mapping platforms now come with authentication or (log in) in place. That means easy control of access to data: from private (organizational) to public.
3) Apps anywhere, anytime on any device – Use a GIS application on your office PC/Mac, smartphone or tablet. Today GIS Web apps can be built with intelligence to know the device type accessing and style itself for that screen size. Magic!
4) Location is everywhere – In life, in business, location is central to much of what we do. GIS provides the the answers to all and any location based questions. And uses maps to display the results. A picture speaks a thousand words.
5) Integration – Rather than living in isolation GIS can now be integrated with other systems. As an example we’ve been building a dropbox-ArcGIS Online integrated app
6) Extending GIS Reach Within Organizations – So much staff work revolves around location, and yet often GIS is overlooked. Cloud based mobile GIS can not only be extended for those currently using the technology within organizations, but (crucially) to those who do not currently use the technology.

If you are still on the fence …. its time to make the leap to cloud based mobile enabled GIS technology.

Let us know how you are extending GIS within your organization using the cloud and mobile technology.

Tags: arcgis, Cloud, ESRI, GIS, mobile

Categories: ArcGIS Online, cloud GIS, Mobile GIS, Web and mobile GIS

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 16th, 2014 at 6:07 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.