TheConstantGeographer

GIS is an acronym that stands for "geographic informations systems" and is increasing also used to stand for "geographic information science."

A geographic informations system includes hardware on which to store geographic information, software with which to manage and visualize said geographic data, and the people which manage and analyze the hardware, software, and geographic data. If you would like to see what others have to say about GIS, click here.

Geographic information science is the realm of geographic information (the where and what), geographic digital data, and geographic information technologies. For specifics, click here.

A little as 10 years ago, GIS was locked in the domain of high-end workstations that ran the UNIX operating system. A GIS professional was required to operate the software and hardware as GIS was an arcane science to the majority of people. Managing a GIS was an expensive proposition. A specialist was required. Expensive software was required. Expensive hardware was required.

Today, computer processors have changed the GIS landscape. Costs of computers have decreased dramatically while software has become more powerful and more accessible. Some might argue that the software cost has not altered much. The variety of software has increased, however, allowing customers to select a solution that fits their budget. Training opportunities have expanded so that someone with no GIS experience can take a community college class, university class, or even participate in online training. Undergraduate, graduate, Ph.D, and certification programs exist to provide various levels of training and exposure.

Below, I have provided links to hardware and software vendors. Almost any computer purchased today has the capability of running GIS software. I have some suggestions, however:

1. Lots of RAM: This will speed processing and display, preventing the constant hard drive access that results from caching processes in virtual memory.

2. Lots of Hard Drive Space: The amount of hard drive space taken by software (the footprint) gets larger with each release or version. Huge amounts of digital data are available online that require storage space. Space is also needed for the working space and the 'live' data, the data which represents the latest good copy.

Sophisticated GIS users may opt for more complex hard drive arraignments, such as SCSI hard drives, or RAID arrays. Data access speeds are a little faster with SCSI hard drives. RAID provides for data recovery in the event of a disk failure.

3. Processor: Get the fastest one affordable. Most GIS is not written to take advantage of dual processors. However, dual processors create an environment whereby the GIS software can run on one processor, leaving the other(s) to run other applications. Dual-core technology is recommended; 64-bit apps appear to be problematic as of this writing.

4. Graphics Card: GIS software is graphics-intensive, especially if one gets into 3D rendering. Purchase an OpenGL compliant graphics card with atleast 128MB of RAM. Some users may opt for cards that support multiple monitors. Ensure the resolution, refresh rate, CPU frequency, and memory configurations will allow for the type of application.