Where in the cloud are we with geospatial intel?

For many experts within the geospatial intelligence field, the cloud presents both the next opportunities and challenges to come.

Speaking to On The Front Line, Dr Joseph Fontanella, army geospatial information officer director, US Army Geospatial Center, said he believes it is simply "a matter of time before just about everything ends up on the cloud".

"If you look at some of these concepts of cloud based computing, the data, the information management architecture, the orbital and airborne intelligence communications assets, and even advanced biomedical technology may be used to add value to geospatial data within that cloud environment," he told the publication.

One of the key benefits of the cloud is the opportunity it offers to empower users. The openness of the platform means there are near infinite opportunities for both public and private sector developers to create applications which will allow the different users of geospatial data to access it in a way which best suits their needs.

Yet, it is this same openness which brings with it security risks. The vast sets of data which the cloud can store does little to address one of the key issues being raised as greater amounts of data  are collected – integrating this in a way which allows users to derive actionable insights.

Geospatial information is being used for an increasing number of exercises – from border control and military intelligence operations to monitoring climate change and natural disasters.

With so many stakeholders collecting information, duplication is virtually inevitable but should ultimately be avoided at a time when resources are tight.

Speaking to Defence Systems, Keith Barber, implementation lead for online on-demand services at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, said: "We have to find a balance in terms of investment and we need to understand new technology like the cloud, which is the buzzword du jour.

"One challenge is that we have to be smart about aligning resources."

According to the Issues and Challenges for Federal Geospatial Information report from the Congress Research Service, as much as 80 per cent of government data now features a geospatial component.

It claims the federal government's role has now shifted from the gathering information to managing and coordinating it and facilitating partnerships, something which will require work between regional and national organisations and the private sector.

As far back as 1990, the government was said to have recognised the challenge of managing and coordinating geospatial intelligence collected from a variety of sources, but the answers remain elusive.

Previous efforts to integrate large amounts of geospatial data from US Forest Service (USFS) and National Integrated Land System have run into significant issues in coordinating data from different sources.

The USFS was said to have put the majority of its efforts into reconciling the data, which ultimately ended up with a low-resolution map, something which would be of little use to warfighters on the front line if military geospatial intelligence projects ran into the same issues.

Security is another major concern. Ensuring the safety of data when access must be granted to hundreds if not thousands of people – both those within the public and private sectors require sophisticated systems – and the challenge is made greater by the cloud.

Even once this has been achieved, access remains an issue. Even though data on the cloud can be accessed in theory from anywhere in the world, a data connection is still required to access it and this could render the information useless for a disconnected solider.

Fontanella concluded: "The cloud is useful on many levels, and it's going to revolutionise how we do things, but at some point you still need to consider the disconnected user."

The cloud cannot operate in isolation. It must be supported with mobile devices to allow access to the data from the front line. So ultimately, both the public and private sector will have a role to play in making the cloud's potential a reality.

Cloud computing within geoint will be a key focus area when the worlds military geospatial community meet in January 2012 at the annual Defence Geospatial Intelligence (DGI) conference & exhibition in Westminster, London.

To find out more:

- Visit: www.DefenceGeospatial.com

- Call: +44 (0) 20 7368 9465

- Email: dgi@wbr.co.uk  

T: 44 (0) 207 368 9465
F: 44 (0) 207 368 9401
E: dgi@wbr.co.uk
W: www.DefenceGeospatial.com

WBR Ltd
Third Floor, 129 Wilton Road
Victoria, London
SW1V 1JZ

Tags: