Enterprise-Level GIS

As GIS problems become larger and require more data, personnel, software, and hardware, we move into the realm of enterprises. An enterprise is beyond one person and typically includes multiple organizations.

Enterprise GIS (Esri)

Enterprise GIS allows us to exchange information and present spatial data in more effective ways than before. This includes:

• Web services to allow data to be access from virtually anywhere
• Large spatial data warehouses for storing huge quantities of data
• Web sites with data to download and maps to provide visualizations and integration with non-spatial information

The complexity of enterprise-level GIS requires using the Internet to connect everyone involved and needs special software and, at times, hardware.

Enterprise GIS builds on existing desktop computers (workstations) and traditional GIS software. To this is added:

• Additional standards for data interchange
• Servers (computers dedicated to serving up geospatial data)
• Intranet and Internet networks
• Web Server software
• Enterprise-level Relational Databases
• Geospatial Server software