A pay-by-the-month cloud Geographical Information System offering has been launched in Australia by leading GIS vendor ESRI.

Available on the Amazon Cloud platform, the hosted GIS service approach was first trialled with Brisbane City Council (BCC) during the 2011 flood crisis, when Esri Australia built, deployed and hosted the BCC Flood Map.

“At the height of the crisis, more than three million members of the public accessed the map,” said Jeff Robinson, Esri Australia’s Executive Manager.

“Esri Australia was responsible for managing the entire process – from initial development through to ensuring the application experienced zero down time – taking the pressure off BCC so they could focus their attention elsewhere.

“This hosted service approach to GIS proved incredibly valuable – so making the service available to all Australian organisations has been a priority for us.”
The company says the solution – which provides GIS capabilities to organisations on a month-by-month basis – has already been deployed across the financial services, government and emergency services sectors.

Mr Robinson said the applications of the solution are broad ranging – from a simple web map relating to a specific topic or initiative; to an advanced enterprise-wide deployment.

“For a retailer, this could mean providing their analysts with a visualisation tool to monitor shoppers’ in-store behaviour; for an engineering firm it could serve as a core asset management system; or for a state government body, it could be a public information map for a major event,” said Mr Robinson.

“As the GIS solution is hosted on the Amazon Cloud, it can be scaled up and down instantly to meet demand – whether it’s one user or one million users accessing the system.”

For more information on Esri Australia’s hosted GIS solutions, visit esriaustralia.com.au/hostedGIS

Main picture: The hosted GIS service approach was first trialled with the Brisbane City Council Flood Map during the 2011 floods.