Author Archives: Victoria Kouyoumjian
Recent Posts
What’s the Big Deal about Big Data?
The technology tides have shifted again and, as the notion of cloud computing is becoming mainstream across most industries, a new buzzword is emerging: Big Data. Never heard of it? Simply put, the term refers to the ever-growing mountain of data, generated from myriad sources, that organizations must effectively address.
Courtesy: Keith Mann, Esri
For instance, according to a recent MeriTalk survey, 96% of Federal IT professionals expect their agency’s stored data to grow in the next two years by an average of 64 percent.
Big Data is often described using the Three “V”s: Velocity, Volume, and Variety. By example, let’s take a few of the real world case studies gathered by IBM and provided by Mike Rhodin, Senior Vice President at IBM Software Solutions:
Private Clouds: Moving from Hype to Reality (Really!)
Back in 2008, the term “cloud computing” was barely a glint in the eye of most technology companies. Perhaps they used SalesForce.com and Gmail, but tossing around the “cloud” terminology wasn’t really de rigueur.
Now it’s hard to imagine tech discussions without some reference to it at least once in conversation. Seems like it’s everywhere – or at least the terminology is.
In 2009, Esri hitched its geo-wagon to Amazon Web Services (AWS) as our primary cloud provider. But the general consumer audience was much more familiar with shopping experiences through Amazon.com rather than cloud hosted services off of AWS. Fast forward less than three years, and things certainly have changed. AWS has established itself as separate and different from Amazon.com, with a brand synonymous with “cloud” as a globally-known public cloud infrastructure service provider. And in 2010, Esri announced the availability of ArcGIS Online, initially supported by AWS infrastructure under-the-hood, to bring the ubiquity of a public cloud platform to the geospatial community.
Open Source, Closed Source: Moving to the Middle
Recently, several of us here at Esri had the opportunity to attend and support FOSS4G, the ‘Free and Open Source Software for GIS’ conference, this year held in Denver, Colorado.Esri was sponsoring large, and with four speaking slots and a fully staffed booth, I’d like to think we were valuable contributors to this event—which seemed to be a terrific success, with over 900 attendees.
The Future of Mapping
At an Executive Leadership Seminar by the National Park Service, Jack Dangermond spoke on the topic of the Future of Mapping. During his talk, an artist visually “translated” his presentation. Here’s one interpretation:
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