Hardware—GIS Infrastructure

Hardware is really a simplistic term used to describe the technology infrastructure needed to support your GIS implementation. The infrastructure you develop depends on the system requirements you determined you needed during that phase of implemenation planning. Using Web services for your GIS needs requires minimal investment in infrastructure, while an enterprise GIS implementation requires careful planning and a fairly significant investment in computer equipment, network technology, database connectivity, and whatever else is required.

GIS is very much part of the information technology (IT) infrastructure for any organization, not a separate or niche technology. Your IT group will help you determine the infrastructure you need and ensure that it is compatible with the overall IT infrastructure for the organization. Depending on the scale of your implementation, your IT group will help you determine how to address issues such as security, data integrity, compatibility with other critical IT infrastructure and applications, and so on. Partnering early on with your IT group in planning the implementation of your GIS will significantly increase the success of your implementation and use of GIS.