Sent to you by Hugo Martins via Google Reader: Market Sandwich via OpenGeo by Paul Ramsey on 4/28/10
Mmmmmmm, market sandwich... When describing the OpenGeo Suite, I am often asked one of two questions (depending on who I am talking to): “why not just use ESRI” or “why not just use Google”. The answer to the first question depends on the person asking, ranging from the “ability to economically scale out to larger user loads” to more managerial things like “having multi-vendor options and flexibility in tool choice”. The answer to the second question is was the subject of a recent article in Ovum, which notes: The key exposures for agencies using the free map platforms relate to some natural consequences of the services being provided for free. These include: - lack of assurances regarding the continuous provision or reliability of the service or that it will remain available for free in the future - lack of control over the content displayed by the vendors on the platform – particularly advertisements - lack of control over how the vendors use data that is provided by agencies - the requirement to indemnify the vendors from any claims arising from the agency’s use of the service. The market runs from the cloud-based web services (Google, Bing) through to self-managed proprietary (ESRI), and there is a gap in the middle where customers need the flexibility and scalability of the consumer services married with the feature richness and control of self-managed software. And that gap, in the middle of the “market sandwich”, is where we plant our flag. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to OpenGeo using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
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