Articles
Long-form analysis covering spatial data intelligence, geospatial architecture, cloud-native GIS, open source tools, and the future of location analytics.
Architecture
Low-Cost, High-Flexibility Spatial Architecture Patterns
Design patterns and technology choices that let you build powerful geospatial systems without enterprise licensing fees — leveraging open data, serverless computing, and cloud-native tools to slash costs by 80–95%.
ArchitectureCloud-Orchestrated Geospatial Workflows: AWS, GCP, and Azure
How to architect scalable, cost-effective geospatial processing pipelines on the major cloud platforms — covering managed spatial databases, serverless processing, and event-driven spatial architectures.
ArchitectureFrom Monolithic GIS to Cloud-Native Spatial Intelligence
How organisations are breaking free from expensive, vendor-locked GIS platforms and embracing cloud-native spatial architectures that deliver greater flexibility, lower costs, and superior scalability.
Tools & Technology
Ditching the Basemap: Open Source Maps and Vector-Only Overlays
A clear-eyed look at basemap options — from OpenStreetMap and ESRI free tiers to self-hosted PMTiles — and the cases where you can skip the basemap entirely, delivering only your data layer for a faster, cheaper, and more legible map.
Tools & TechnologyQuerying NetCDF Data via API: XArray and FastAPI for Analytical Speed
How to load multi-dimensional climate and scientific datasets into memory with XArray and serve efficient spatial slices via FastAPI — eliminating legacy bulk file downloads and enabling web-scale analytical access to large raster datasets.
Tools & TechnologyVector Tiles and the Modern Web Mapping Architecture
From slow WMS/WFS requests to blazing-fast vector tiles — how PMTiles, MapLibre GL JS, and modern tiling strategies have transformed what is possible with spatial data on the web.
Tools & TechnologyThe Open Source Geospatial Stack: PostGIS, GDAL, and Beyond
A practical guide to the mature, battle-tested open source tools that have displaced proprietary GIS software — covering PostGIS, GDAL, GeoServer, QGIS, GeoPandas, and the modern web mapping stack.
Analytics & Intelligence
The Modern Case for Rasters: Why Data Engineers Keep Missing a Trick
Modern data engineers default to row-based pipelines and PostGIS geometries — often missing the fact that a pre-indexed, spatially-registered numerical array can answer the same question 100x to 1000x faster. A practical argument for rasters in modern geospatial workflows.
Analytics & IntelligenceUsing H3 for Aggregated Spatial Analytics at Scale
Uber's H3 hexagonal grid system makes large-scale spatial aggregation fast, consistent, and zoom-aware. Learn how to pre-process data counts into H3 cells, switch resolution levels dynamically, and build a Leaflet map that renders the right level of detail at every zoom.
Analytics & IntelligenceThe Future of Geointelligence: AI, Foundation Models, and Spatial Analytics
How large language models, vision foundation models, and AI-native geospatial platforms are reshaping the field — from satellite image segmentation to natural language spatial querying and digital twin simulation.
Analytics & IntelligenceDeriving Intelligence from Location Data: From Coordinates to Insight
A deep dive into the analytical techniques that transform raw location data into actionable intelligence — covering spatial clustering, movement analysis, predictive analytics, and geospatial machine learning.