Enterprise GIS servers could be an easier, more economical way to distribute full GIS functionality to many desktops.

Traditional Web-based GIS tools allow governments to publish interactive mapping applications on a Web site, allowing citizens to use the maps for their own purposes while simultaneously providing a way for agencies and jurisdictions to share geographic data.

Web-based systems are popular because users can access them from any computer with an Internet browser. They are also easily and inexpensively maintained since all the software resides on a central server — IT staff needn’t visit users’ machines to troubleshoot software problems or install upgrades.

Though the public sector uses Web-based GIS in many ways, the approach is not without drawbacks.

One problem is that Web-based GIS applications aren’t as powerful or versatile as the systems GIS professionals run on their desktops.

Historically software developers took a small number of desktop GIS functions — mapping, geocoding and point-to-point routing — and turned them into an Internet service designed with an Internet-based architecture, said David Maguire, director of products and international at GIS developer ESRI in Redlands, Calif.

"It fit nicely into the Internet, but it didn’t have all the functional capabilities high-end GIS users had come to expect and require," Maguire said.

By Merrill Douglas

Full Story: http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=93502