• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

MarkHing.com

Carefully Crafted Content

  • Home
  • Smallworld GIS
  • Software
  • Investing
  • Random Musings
  • Blog
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • GNU General Public License
  • Contact Me
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Reduce GIS Integration Costs with Web Services

Mark Hing · Dec 23, 2019 ·

Web Services were a big business back in the early 2000s. After many expensive and incompatible attempts to integrate disparate systems (yes, I’m looking at you CORBA), Web Services hits us like a breath of fresh air.

Of course it wasn’t a silver bullet, but it certainly made integrating systems much easier than having to deal with multiple proprietary applications or poorly implemented specifications.

By 2003 I was doing quite a bit of Smallworld integration work in North and South America, for the GE Services group, and quickly realized just how valuable a properly implemented, reusable Web Services toolkit could be. So I wrote one over the course of a few projects and reused it in a number of subsequent integration implementations.

Fortunately other groups in GE were working on similar initiatives, and since there was a good culture of sharing, it resulted in some excellent ideas being exchanged.

I wrote an article, published in the February 2003 issue of geoworld magazine, that described the benefits of Web Services and how integration costs could be reduced.

February 2003 issue of geoworld magazine

Interestingly enough, almost 17 years later, although the technologies have changed somewhat, the ideas and concepts remain as relevant today as they were back in ’03.

If we replace XML with JSON, SOAP with GeoJSON and Web Services with RESTful Services or GraphQL, that article reads like it could have been written last week. That’s the beauty of well-thought-out concepts: technologies may come and go, but the underlying concepts remain evergreen.

Here’s the original article.

At the end of the day, it’s important to view projects in a holistic manner, rather than looking at them in isolation. Usually common patterns can be extracted and implemented with tried-and-tested solutions built by others who saw a need for these same patterns.

And those, “others,” are often well-funded, multi-Billion dollar behemoths who employ some of the smartest and most talented people on the planet. In such situations, it’s generally a good idea to stand on their shoulders and leverage their work to your business’s advantage.

So while specific technologies may rise and wane, if you’ve kept the underlying concepts in mind (such as loose-coupling and re-usability to name two), your systems will be far easier, and less expensive, to maintain and enhance as they move through the years.

Software

About Mark

Mark Hing, a Value Investing and Smallworld GIS specialist, created the Automatic Investor software and is the author of "The Pragmatic Investor" book.

(Buy the book now on Amazon.ca)
(Buy the book now on Amazon.com)

As President of Aptus Communications Inc., he builds cutting-edge FinTech applications for individual investors. He has also used his software expertise to architect, develop and implement solutions for IBM, GE, B.C. Hydro, Fortis BC, ComEd and many others.

When not taking photographs or dabbling in music and woodworking, he can be found on the ice playing hockey -- the ultimate sport of sports.

linkedin   Connect with Mark

All views expressed on this site are my own and not those of my employer.

Copyright © 2023 Aptus Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.