Open Standards and Open Source Solutions for GIS
Open Standards and Open GIS
Farallon is an active supporter of Open Geospatial Consortium standards for our client projects. The OpenGIS standards are designed to enable full integration of geospatial data and geoprocessing resources into mainstream computing and the widespread use of interoperable geoprocessing software and geodata products throughout the information infrastructure.
When to Use a Free Geospatial Database
Traditionally, companies turn to GIS to solve basic mapping needs. However, in some cases, instead of asking our client to buy several licenses of GIS software, budget for software maintenance, train its staff, and acquire and manage basemap data, we suggested using Oracle XE to store location information.
We then use Google Maps high quality basemaps and aerial photographs to act as the presentation layer. This combination of free softwares can often meet the technical needs and business constraints much more effectively than a traditional GIS deployment.
With Oracle XE, we can also be sure that our client can immediately access its critical data with any GIS or CAD tools it might require in the future.
By using open interfaces and protocols, projects that Farallon develops will not lock you into proprietary databases, hardware, or any particular software vendor. Our commitment to open standards enables interoperability between different brands and different kinds of spatial processing systems.
Open standards support also means that geospatial information can be readily integrated into existing IT infrastructures and business applications. Services can be deployed incrementally without disruption to existing IT functions.
"Plug and Play" GIS technologies
Our developers have unmatched expertise in implementing multi GIS vendor products, creating a seamless enterprise GIS that delivers the traditional strengths of ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo, and AutoDesk products.
At Farallon, we build geo-spatial interoperability using standards and specifications already adopted by the IT community. Our approach is built upon:
- XML schema for encoding GIS Web Services
- XML Schema for the modeling, transport, and storage of geographic information
- Emergency Response Map Symbology
- Open Location Services
- Web Map Services
- ASP, JSP, .NET, J2EE platform development
Open Source and Open Interface Solutions
There are several open interface and freely available database products available that can be integrated with free and open API mapping software such as Google Earth, Google Maps and Virtual Earth.
- Oracle XE is a free geospatial database, a relational database management system that can natively store geometry features without the use of middleware such as ArcSDE. Any data or code that we develop within XE can be readily ported to Oracle 10g or Oracle Spatial.
- MySQL is an open source database that implements a subset of the SQL with Geometry Types environment of OpenGIS.
- PostGIS "spatially enables" the PostgreSQL server using OpenGIS standards, allowing it to be used as a backend spatial database for GIS.