|
|
| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
| |
| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | RE: GISList: USGS map server generating errors? |
| Date: |
10/05/2001 08:24:01 PM |
| From: |
Dimitri Rotow |
|
|
> I think BeyondGeo is having some major server troubles -- none of the maps
> on the http://www.beyondgeo.com work for me -- the whole BeyondGeo concept
> is using central server(s) -- right? (which means that the USGS
> map is just
> an interface to something hosted by BeyondGeo)
>
That's true, but it could be that USGS is doing something else on their web
page other than the embedded link to the BeyondGeo content that is causing
the script error. I've visited the BeyondGeo site about a month ago and did
not have trouble with the sites they featured at that time.
BeyondGeo to me is most interesting for what it portends. I think there are
three main issues affecting the ASP (Application Service Provider) business
of running map server web sites:
First, if the customer really does not want to "do GIS," is it possible to
create a dialog based web site that builds a GIS solution automatically
without any thought needed on the part of the customer? I don't think this
is possible. If it were, everyone building GIS software would provide that
for sale as packaged software for ordinary GIS operations. I think it is
more a sales pitch that justifies paying the ASP consulting fees as opposed
to paying a GIS consultant, GIS dealer, internal GIS expert, etc.
Second, cost and pricing are important factors. BeyondGeo's pricing, if this
is a real business, is an invitation for competitors. Let's take just one
example: We sell Manifold 5.00 for $245, which *includes* Manifold IMS
(Internet Map Server). Manifold IMS and an $800 generic PC can run many
dozens, if not over a hundred, map-serving web sites that have the low hit
rates addressed by the BeyondGeo pricing scheme. Say you run twenty sites
per server so each is rocket-fast even with lots of hits. A thousand bucks
in server and software split twenty ways is only $50 a site. I see that
BeyondGeo no longer posts prices on their website, but it used to be $2500
startup and $5000 per year for a site with 1000 hits per day, and about
$1500 startup and $1500 a year for only a hundred hits per day. You could
probably run two hundred sites per server with only 100 hits per day for
each (that's only 14 hits per minute with 200 sites). For those 200 sites
BeyondGeo charges $600,000 the first year and $300,000 each year thereafter.
Wow! That's a lot of profit from one $1000 box. I don't believe that GIS
people are so uncompetitive that they would sit around while someone makes
$600,000 the first year that could be duplicated with only $1000 in costs.
Third, I think map servers make more sense when they are part of a real GIS.
If the data in the map is real GIS data it likely came out of a real GIS
system of some kind. The people who created it have spent time and effort
to learn that GIS. Why not simply click a button and publish to the web?
Why learn yet another way of doing things within a map server that requires
a different skill set from the GIS software that's used to create and
maintain the data?
Put the above three issues together and you might conclude that many GIS
players will get into the ASP map server business. I'd bet there are a lot
of people reading this list who have the GIS talent to provide their own
"GIS map server" ASP service. You could charge a fourth of what BeyondGeo
charges, say $800 startup and $1250 a year, and still have a huge markup
(considering your actual costs of the hardware and software costs for the
service are about $50 startup and maybe $50 per year). What's interesting
about this is anyone with a cheap PC, a copy of Windows and a DSL or
broadband connection can go into the ASP map serving business. IIS and
web-serving in general has become so automated that you don't even need
server software anymore: Windows 2000 Professional or XP comes with it by
default in a real plug-and-play way.
If the GIS map server ASP business serves a real demand, it seems to me
there are a lot of GIS VARs, consultants and other interested GIS business
people who can do a good job of helping customers get their GIS act together
and, if they want to, publish the results to the web.
What do people think about this?
Cheers,
Dimitri
To unsubscribe, write to gislist-unsubscribe@geocomm.com
________________________________________________________________________
Setup a GeoCommunity Account and have access to FAST DataDownloads
and Premium Career Posting at a discounted rate!
https://www.geocomm.com/cgi-bin/accounts/login
On-line Archives available at
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/community/lists/
|
|
Sponsored by:
For information
regarding
advertising rates
Click Here!
|
