Stevenage Borough Council and East Herts District Council ICT Partnership move to corporate GIS in the cloud
Cloud-hosted web mapping service supports Councils’ ICT Partner Strategy
Stevenage Borough Council (SBC) and East Herts District Council (EHDC) ICT Partnership has selected cloud-hosted GIS and web mapping. Procurement was undertaken using the G-Cloud framework and includes the SIS WebMap and Spatial Database cloud-hosted services.
At the heart of the Councils’ joint ICT strategy is an Enterprise Architecture to standardise and consolidate software applications to achieve cost savings, simplify support and aid cross-organisational working. Its objective is to accelerate self-service digital delivery for its customers and provide opportunities for a more agile, flexible, and mobile workforce. Cloud computing is being adopted to increase agility and reduce long-term ICT costs.
SIS WebMap is an advanced yet easy-to-use intranet and internet web mapping application that will bring together GIS data from both authorities into a secure web environment. The cloud-hosted web mapping service was selected for its capacity to allow users from both SBC and EHDC to access web mapping via a browser. IT administrators will be able to use the SIS WebMap Admin browser-based interface to define multiple web maps for each local authority, with different data and functionality enabled as required.
An Edit facility will be available to internal users to create and maintain spatial data, and the constraints tool, FindIT, will be used to streamline spatial searches across both councils.
SBC and EHDC also required a solution that would provide a single centralised location for the storage of spatial data. To meet this requirement, the Spatial Database Service, including a hosted PostgreSQL database with the PostGIS extension, was selected. The database is hosted and managed by Cadcorp on a secure cloud platform. SIS ETL manages and controls the flow of data between files, databases, and servers and will streamline spatial data management, providing synchronised data for the cloud data service. The Ordnance Survey® MasterMap Topographic Vector Service will provide quick and easy access to the latest Ordnance Survey MasterMap Topography Layer. Both the software and map updates will be managed as part of the service.
“The Stevenage Borough Council and East Herts District Council ICT Partnership places a strong emphasis on providing choice in the way people access information on our services. The hosted web mapping service will provide that choice, addressing individuals’ circumstances and preferences, while supporting prompt and effective responses to requests.”
–Stephen Munyard, Information Systems Manager, Stevenage Borough Council and East Herts District Council ICT Partnership
GIS technology in the cloud can deliver significant benefits to local authorities and other public sector organisations. It has the potential to reduce both the overall cost of ownership and the administration overhead of keeping software and data up to date.
