Technology advancements are important to the FGDC’s efforts to advance the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructue (NSDI) and geographic place-based understanding and decision-making. The FGDC is advancing geographic place-based understanding and decision-making by taking advantage of cloud computing services. Cloud applications are challenging traditional thinking about information technology (IT) infrastructure performance, as well as the availability and accessibility of information for key data management and delivery mechanisms. Cloud computing is designed to treat IT as a scalable service rather than an institutionalized infrastructure . Scalable services have the ability to dynamically increase or decrease capacity to match user demands, leverage shared technologies and hardware, and ultimately realize economies of scale.
The FGDC through the Geospatial Platform initiative is leveraging and providing shared cloud-based services to aid agency modernization and to provide geospatial services to meet mission demands. Cloud computing is helping advance the NSDI Strategic Plan's goal of developing capabilities for National Shared Services by utilizing common cloud computing approaches as mechanisms to leverage technology, close productivity gaps, and combine buying power across agencies for similar needs.
Visit the Geospatial Platform at www.GeoPlatform.gov