The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) has just released its 2009 Geospatial Technology Report providing a snapshot of the current state of the art. The 144 page report emanated from a study of over 500 participating GITA member companies. Most GITA members are classed as utilities—although these include many oils and pipeline companies. The introduction notes that ‘a multitude of technologies have reached the point of viability for enterprise-wide implementation. Interoperable solutions based on open standards, web access to spatial data and open relational databases are fueling a move to a geodata-based enterprise. Mobile applications and wireless/GPS use is rising.’ Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) landbase and imagery datasets and lower cost hardware providers have lowered the cost of entry for many users. Intriguingly, Google is now categorized as a ‘leading GIS vendor’ with 5% of full-use seats.
The survey contains a wealth of cost and implementation information that should help organizations budget and benchmark their GIS deployments. GITA’s constituency means that it provides a vision of a far more diverse supplier environment than the ESRI-dominated upstream. Copious information on engineering, data conversion and outsourcing strategy should be of relevance to oil and gas users. The full report costs $449 to non members. More from www.gita.org.
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