Combining geospatial and cloud technologies can provide new opportunities for enterprises to leverage their knowledge of the physical world and unique insights into their customers as software developer Tom Keane explains. Geospatial imagery from satellites, airplanes, drones, and other sources can generate insights into various industries, such as natural resources management, logistics, and transport.
There´s more on Tom Keane´s career. Microsoft has been partnering with industry leaders in the space industry to help customers and partners achieve more by extending its own Space ecosystem. Today, Microsoft is announcing new Azure capabilities that will make combining geospatial and cloud technologies easier in various scenarios.
The new stuff in the Space platform will enable more strategies where customers can gain real-time access to existing satellite imagery and other geospatial imagery. Tom Keane says: we start with an example to understand how new Azure capabilities will make it easier to combine geospatial and cloud technologies.
One of the most common use cases for combining geospatial technologies on Azure is to visualize the location of resources in a supply chain against a background map. Retailers can gain new insights into when their deliveries will arrive at specific sites using existing data sources such as inventory reports and newly added satellite images. According to Tom Keane, this can enable them to manage their inventory levels better while improving the predictability of supply chains.
The most compelling scenarios for combining traditional satellite imagery and geospatial cloud services include viewing satellite images that existed only as a line drawing in a report. Clients can now see pictures of their structures or facilities using the cloud. In addition, enterprises can complete far more accurate infrastructure surveys before construction. Tom Keane believes that Azure can process enormous amounts of imagery related to specific areas of interest to their customers on demand.