MapData Services needed to help their client Geoscience Australia (GA) deliver terabytes of elevation data more efficiently. The current method for storing elevation data involved hard drives and even floppy disks, making the data difficult and expensive to share (via shipping). As a result, simple data requests could take weeks to fulfil, and companies had to pay hefty fees for data delivery.
Automated cloud-based data delivery
MapData Services and Geoscience Australia chose FME Flow (Hosted)–formerly FME Cloud–and Amazon S3 to provide an automated system for data delivery that was scalable as new datasets were added. Named the Elevation Information System (ELVIS), it allows users to download data for their area of interest in both the format and coordinate system of their preference.
Implementing the data delivery system in the cloud has improved reliability and allowed requests for information to be handled automatically, reducing manual effort by 80%. Government, academia and the public can now access GA’s elevation data holdings by email in 5 minutes, and large orders can be downloaded within the hour. As a result, data downloads have increased by 530%, and costs have been reduced by 600%.
Geoscience Australia is the country’s national geological survey.
MapData Services is a premium specialist in the digital mapping and data market.
