Move to virtual environment ensures EDINA Digimap meets demand for its map delivery service

Upgrade to Cadcorp GeognoSIS 9 enables more scalability and robustness

Digimap™, the online map and data delivery service provided by EDINA, based at the University of Edinburgh, has upgraded its geospatial web services engine to Cadcorp GeognoSIS 9. It is now operating in a virtualised environment that improves both scalability and redundancy. Digimap has been powered by Cadcorp GeognoSIS since 2008. To meet the demand of the ever-increasing number of map requests and benefit from a significant number of new features, EDINA chose to upgrade to the latest version of GeognoSIS.

Digimap specialises in the delivery of a number of geographical data collections over the internet. It serves nearly 150 UK higher and further education institutions with networked access to a library of mapping data. EDINA also runs Digimap for Schools, an online mapping service for pupils aged 5 – 16 years old. This is currently used by almost 3,500 British secondary and primary schools. The number of schools using the service grew to 5,000 during the UK Coronavirus lockdown to support home schooling.

The Digimap collection can be viewed online as a web map, saved as Adobe PDF for printing, or the raw data can be downloaded for use locally in CAD or GIS software. Digital map data ranges from Ordnance Survey® products to geology, marine, societal, environmental, and global datasets, including aerial photography. GeognoSIS serves the data over the web from a variety of sources, primarily a very large spatial database, producing maps of the high cartographic quality demanded by EDINA and its users. The number of GeognoSIS ‘get map’ requests from subscribers to Digimap and Digimap for Schools ranges from 3 million to 13 million per month. For high quality printing, nearly 70 thousand PDF documents are produced by GeognoSIS every month.

A number of enhancements to GeognoSIS have accelerated both drawing and PDF production, improving the production of high quality hard copy maps. The updated Cadcorp GeognoSIS Manager gives Digimap web browser-based access to manage and configure the service.

James Reid, Geospatial Services Manager at EDINA commented: “The technical capability of the software is outstanding. We’re very happy that we upgraded to GeognoSIS 9. It does exactly what we need. We have a longstanding, good relationship with Cadcorp and they have always been amenable to our specific and bespoke requirements. We are always serviced timely and responsively.”

Cadcorp GeognoSIS is a geospatial web services engine used in both the development and deployment of web applications that use maps and other geographic information. For more information visit: http://cdcp.io/geognosis