5 predictions Geo for 2010 and 5 things that won’t happen

December 31, 2009 59 Comments

Here are 5 predictions for Twenty Ten.

  1. The shapefile dies: SpatiaLite + ESRI’s File Geodatabase API finally put a dagger in the shapefile.
  2. GIS on iPhone/iSlate (Apple Tablet) and Android/Chrome OS: With Apple and Google owning the mobile space, we’ll see more proprietary and open source projects being ported to these platforms.  Microsoft Tablet PCs and Windows Mobile/CE begin to die off.
  3. 64-bit: There will be some holdouts (*cough* ESRI), but most of us will be running native 64-bit code on our desktops and servers.  Now to just get more RAM in this laptop.
  4. Mobile: If you aren’t running on the iPhone/Android/Blackberry you aren’t relevant.  Web mapping apps become mobile browser aware.   Those that aren’t were probably irrelevant anyway.
  5. Google: Google’s APIs continue to push the envelope and they continue to be the standard for everyone mapping on the interweb.  Google is able to throw so much money and manpower at “problems” and their solutions are coming faster than anyone else can match.

Here are 5 things that won’t happen:

  1. Augmented Reality: Much like the Nintendo Virtual Boy, it sounds great until you try and use it.
  2. OpenStreetMap Dominates: Between Google’s quick improving of their database and continued licensing issues OSM plateaus.  Companies will continue to try and figure out how to monetize OSM, but fail.
  3. ESRI + Microsoft: This was on the top 10 lists for many people in 2009, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing deeper integration.  ESRI will continue to support multiple platforms (Google, OSM, Microsoft, “other”) and not become a Microsoft shop.  As Google continues to erode away at SharePoint and Bing Maps, ESRI will make sure that they don’t get caught in Microsoft’s blind spot.
  4. Geolocation other than Twitter, Apple and Google (TAG): Foursquare, Brightkite, and others will fade as TAG rolls out new APIs and ensure their mobile devices are tagging everything you do.
  5. MySQL falls apart:  Despite the dire predictions of Oracle or Monty destroying the project, too many people have too much invested in the project to let it fail.  MySQL will be fine and LAMP will continue to power Badgers.

Hey, don’t worry…  It’s gonna be a bright, sun-shiny day!

 

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Oracle enters the cloud (MySQL Enterprise too)

September 22, 2008 6 Comments

Oracle and Amazon today announced that Oracle would be offering some of their products inside Amazon’s EC2 cloud.

The Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle Enterprise Manager can now be licensed to run in the cloud on Amazon EC2. Customers can even use their existing software licenses with no additional license fees. 

While I see nothing specifically about Oracle Spatial, I assume is can be licensed as well on the cloud.  The benefit to everyone is outside of licensing costs, the ability to launch the Oracle AMIs on EC2 and be up and running in no time.  That plus the scaleability of EC2 (and thus Oracle) means that you don’t have to worry about hardware limitations with your applications.  RSP Architects uses SQL Server as our database of choice, and while I would have been able to run Oracle in a virtual server, I no longer have to worry about hardware constraints to our development.  Just license (which of course I realize is a problem for some people) and start loading the database.  I’m anxious to see how ArcGIS connects to Oracle Spatial on EC2 and what kind of performance I can expect.

Cloudzilla carries Oracle onshore

Cloudzilla could be unbeatable with Oracle in his hands

Now for those who want to avoid Oracle, MySQL Enterprise as well in the Amazon Cloud.

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Comparing SQL Server 2008, MySQL and PostgreSQL/PostGIS

July 21, 2008 9 Comments

Regina Obe has developed a table to compare the new SQL Server 2008 with PostgreSQL/PostGIS (with MySQL thrown in there to boot).  The table does a wonderful job showing the comparative strengths and weaknesses of all three relational databases.

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