Is there an alternative to expensive spatial databases?
If you work with maps and map data, you’ll be familiar with spatial data. It’s the location-relevant data that connects standard data queries with real-world locations.
Spatial simply means of, or relating to, space, such as “the spatial distribution of population”.
Spatial databases are different from ordinary databases in that they use a specially-designed spatial index to look-up spatial data such as finding the distance between points or a polygon area, intersecting features, and other spatial information.
While spatial databases can extract specialized location data quicker than ordinary databases, they do have certain drawbacks.
The downside to spatial databases
Due to the specialized nature of spatial databases, and the select industries that use them, the cost involved with acquiring the licences needed to use a spatial database can make it difficult for businesses to justify their use, particularly when many other databases are open source and virtually free to use.
Used for unique niches and specific applications, means that professional help and technical support can also be both difficult to come by as well as costly.
When is a spatial database not a spatial database?
Businesses needing a database to store spatial data are not stuck without options. In fact, Telogis GeoBase offers the perfect alternative. It is a commercial-grade mapping engine that doesn’t require a spatial database. This is because the Telogis GeoBase File System (GBFS) includes all of the spatial indexes and functions required to build a geospatial system.
In fact, in most cases Telogis GeoBase eliminates the need for expensive 3rd-party spatial databases allowing you to build an spatially-enabled enterprise-grade application with a lower-cost relational database such as SQL Server or MySQL.
Telogis GeoBase supports common query types (as specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium) but not via standard SQL queries but instead using the Telogis DataQuery API and some simple C#.
Query types supported include:
- Spatial Measurements – Finds the distance between points, polygon area, etc.
- Spatial Predicates – Allows true/false queries such as ‘is there a residence located within a mile of the area we are planning to build the landfill?’
- Constructor Functions – Create new shapes using the Telogis API calls (in C#) to create the various points and lines that make up the shape.
- Observer Functions – Queries which return specific information about a shape such as the location of the center of a circle.
- Spatial Functions – This is generally difficult,or even impossible, with spatial databases, however with the Telogis GeoBase open database developers can write algorithms to apply whatever changes are needed.
Store spatial data without expensive spatial databases
Telogis GeoBase lowers the cost of developing location-based applications by not requiring the use of specialized spatial databases.
It supports map data for over 60 countries around the world and is used to develop hundreds of web-based mobile resource management applications. It also powers the Telogis Platform, trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands including Ford to monitor and manage thousands of moving assets.
