In a partnership of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR), Maryland Department of Information Technology (DOIT), and Maryland’s MD iMap Technical Committee, the Center for GIS at Towson University (CGIS) will deploy Maryland’s latest base map data (6-inch imagery and Gazetteer) in Amazon’s Cloud-based web services in a manner that enables comparison of usability, performance, scalability, and cost between the Cloud and the state’s current MD iMap hosting environment. MD iMap is Maryland’s public facing enterprise GIS infrastructure for providing mapping applications, products, and services online that assist citizens and government employees with managing and presenting data linked to a location. The state’s 6-inch imagery is maintained by MD DNR and is hosted on the MD iMap infrastructure at Towson University. Performance will be tested both in a controlled manner that utilizes web stress tools to quantify the performance differences between the two hosting environments, and in a follow-on phase that encourages real-world use of the system for mobile applications. Evaluating how the Cloud-hosted system can best be deployed to meet performance expectations at the lowest costs aligns with the Federal Geographic Data Committee Geospatial Line of Business goals to optimize and consolidate Federal geospatial investments by reducing costs and improving services to citizens.

The project will result in operational geospatial Cloud services whose deployment costs and performance characteristics will be known and documented and support federal mission requirements towards A-16 data development.

Interim Report

Center for GIS at Towson University

Contacts:

Mark Helmken
410-704-5292
mhelmken@towson.edu

Michael Bentivegna
410-704-5299
mbentivegna@towson.edu

Barney Krucoff
410 974-5027
Bkrucoff@gov.state.md.us