USGS CAP Grant: GEO Cloud II, Amazon Cloud Services

In 2012, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s IT/GIS department received a USGS grant to study the feasibility of using “cloud” computing services to host GIS data. The grant money provides an opportunity to duplicate GIS server technology that is currently housed in our IT data center, and then compare the results with “cloud” computing to access any benefits or hidden problems. There are several Federal agencies and a few non-Federal groups participating in this study. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been chosen to host this project. AWS provides an opportunity to have computer servers without the up-front costs of purchasing or housing the physical computers. AWS offers a low pay-as-you-go pricing with no long term commitments. Server data storage is paid for on a per gigabyte per month basis. The study will culminate with a final report, which will include accomplishments, challenges, and what methods were taken to overcome any challenges in implementing “cloud” computing. Below is a more in-depth description that came from Amazon’s website:

Amazon Web Services

For more information on how cloud storage works visit:

How Cloud Storage Works