Luciad Makes Situational Awareness Software Available in the Cloud

Many companies are taking a second look at operational overhead in the current economy. It’s important to find a cloud computing provider that recognizes certain organizational needs and can accommodate scalability requirements. Cloud computing is unique in that it allows customers to scale up or down on demand, without requiring clients to pay for capacity that cannot be immediately monetized.

For companies that only require minimal resources, there are solutions that bill only for actual usage with no minimum fees. Then, as business increases, it is possible to increase capacity accordingly, without making any technical changes. These types of service are becoming well known in the industry and are attractive computing models. This is especially true when it comes to the U.S. Government and Department of Defense (DoD).

Cloud computing is a rapidly emerging technology in the Defense, Security and Aviation domains, and an essential element of Geospatial Situational Awareness applications and services. Geospatial Situational Awareness is, as its name implies, intelligence software that increases efficiency, accuracy and accountability in every area of asset marking and tracking.

Situational data collected in the field is automatically uploaded to a database, then pushed to every device involved in the endeavor, giving every user access to the same information in near real time. These are obviously critical tools to the areas of government charged with the protection and service of its constituents.

With this approach, the concept of cloud computing is internalized within the governmental organization. The underlying technology that allows IT systems to obtain and use resources on demand is still in place, but the specific organization is typically the only user of the resources and they are hosted in its own data center, or a dedicated area in a shared facility.

LuciadFusion enables the management of large geospatial data sets, which can be offered through the cloud through support offered for standard Web services from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).

The actual application, LuciadLightspeed, runs on a user's desktop or mobile computer and can access data and services in the Cloud. It can also be used for Situational Awareness as a Service (SAaaS), by offering its wide range of analysis and visualization capabilities via the cloud.

The mobile version of LuciadMobile runs on mobile devices and enables in-the-field users to instantly access data and services from the cloud. Luciad products allow for the development of Sustainable Applications that are easier to maintain and that can be evolved in a cost effective manner. As it is common with cloud infrastructures, the economic advantages of an on-demand computing environment include the flexibility of being able to scale services up or down to accommodate changing needs or business requirements, without having to invest in new equipment.

The benefits of Cloud computing, together with the benefits of Sustainable Applications, are an essential in today's world of reduced budgets.