Analyzing open data

Previously in this book, you have learned about several different ways geospatial data can be stored, accessed, and analyzed. Most organizations perform analysis of their proprietary GIS datasets and keep the results of those analyses proprietary. The open data concept extends to all use cases and is encouraged to be used in conjunction with internal organizational data to maximize the value of the result. Leveraging the publicly available Earth observation datasets is not only simple with Open Data on AWS but it also performs better because everything is in the cloud. You can layer your own proprietary data on top of the open geospatial data and perform analysis directly in the cloud where both of the data sources live. This saves processing time, supports unpredictable workloads, and minimizes cost using the AWS consumption-based pricing on all cloud resources.

Using your AWS account

If you are new to using AWS to access and analyze geospatial data, you...