Skygone in the News: A Down-to-Earth Cloud

In “A Down-to-Earth Cloud,” GeoDataPoint Editor Christine Grahl says “If the technology is not driven by a specific need, the tremendous capabilities of the cloud are likely to be wasted.” To illustrate her point, she talked with Jeffrey Poplin, Dewberry associate vice president and director of GIS Consulting services, and Ryan Hughes, Skygone co-founder.

Dewberry was looking for the best way to solve clients’ problems. Skygone not only provided a solution, but “freed up Dewberry’s resources to develop a greater number of practical web-based solutions.”

“The individuals who started the company had a strong GIS background,” Poplin says. “They understood our applications and the needs of our clients, and they offered an impressive amount of security and redundancy.”

“We want geospatial professionals to be able to focus on GIS and their business and not have to focus on architecture, load balancing, and all the technical aspects of data hosting,” explains Ryan Hughes, co-founder of Skygone.

Both Hughes and Poplin believe the demand for cloud services will continue to grow as organizations see the benefits and overcome their security concerns. “Security is a two-way street between the cloud provider and the client,” Poplin says. “You have to take a close look at the cloud provider and the type of infrastructure and controls they have and make sure they comply with federal and industry regulations. As long as the solution has the correct architecture, the data will be secure. But the client also has complete control over how they implement security and policy regulations, so we have to help educate them on those aspects of data security.”

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