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GIS Servers

To get started creating web sites with spatial data, you can rent space on a server that is hosted by another company. Most organizations will find that this is more expensive and more limiting than purchasing their own server. A traditional web server will work find until you want to serve your data into a dynamic map, then you will probably want to use a GIS Server.

A GIS Server will serve up your data through standard web service protocols to the browser. Currently, I recommend GeoServer because it free, relatively easy to install and maintain, and pretty reliable. It also comes with a client-side (browser) library called OpenLayers that will get you started building a dynamic map. There is also a new client-side library that creates more attractive dynamic maps called Leaflet and I find it even easier to use than OpenLayers.

GIS Web Servers

Below is a quick summary of the available GIS Server solutions.

GeoServer

ArcServer

MapServer

Custom Solutions

Other Examples

 

Test Your Knowledge

 

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