GIS Blurb: Behind the Map
Behind every Map is a slew of technologies. This is true for the many diverse fields. For instance, let's go down the GIS rabbit hole.
In GIS, you will find:
1⃣ Desktop Applications: There are all types of desktop applications that GIS professionals might use. For instance, Survey 123, ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, GRASS, Excel, Google Sheets, Libre Office Calc, RStudio, Python Notebooks, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio IDE, PostgreSQL Admin 3, MSSQL Studio, Blender, Adobe Products, Pix4D, Bentley ContextCapture, and ESRI Site Scan for ArcGIS just to name a few.
2⃣ Databases: In the GIS field, there are all types of databases. There are File databases, SQL Databases / Geo-Databases, Network Database and NoSQL Databases such as Graph Database just to name a few.
3⃣ Servers: Yep, there are all kinds of servers in GIS and this is especially true in large government institutions or private Entities. You will find GIS Servers such as ArcGIS Server, Geo-Server and QGIS Server. These servers are used for sharing data such as vector and raster data and for different types of geospatial processing such as geocoding. Not only GIS Servers and Tile Servers but entities such as ESRI, offers enterprise products and under their Portal offering, ESRI offer many other types of servers such as Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Data Store and ArcGIS GeoEvent Server, which enables real-time event-based data streams to be integrated as data sources in your enterprise GIS setup. But wait, there is a lot more such as Web Servers (IIS, Apache, Nginx), DNS Server and more.
4⃣ Systems: Not only are there a lot of Desktop Applications and Server Software, but there are also physical systems that are behind the Map. For instance, take your Desktop at work. Depending on what you do in the Data / GIS arena, you might be running with a ASUS TUF RTX 4090 OC Graphics Card (PCIe 4.0, 24GB 384Bit GDRR6X, HDMI 2.1a, DP 1.4a, ARGB), w/SPS x Dino DP to HDMI Converter with a AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X 32-Core, 64-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor or better. On top of that, you have to think about drives and volatile memory (DDR5 / RAM) that goes into these systems and lets not forget about the motherboard and power supply.
5⃣ Networks: That is right, networks. If it was not for networks, all those servers would not be possible. Networks are made up by many different devices such as modems, routers and switches. A lot goes into networking and creating different topologies and securing network infrastructures.
On that note, it's evident that there's a vast landscape Behind the Map. GIS encompasses a multitude of facets, offering diverse career opportunities for individuals to explore and specialize in various areas.
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