The ecosystem of GIS software architectures has evolved substantially in recent years to include a variety of options ranging from desktop GIS, server-based and component-based architectures to Web-based, cloud-based, mobile-based approaches. Aligned with the main trend, geospatial software architectures or infrastructures are also moving from desktop architectures to more cloud based or server based options to meet ever-increasing requirements of interoperability, interdisciplinary work and computational power for processing large data sets and derived products. Cloud-based architectures also enable on the fly visualization of computed geospatial products, as complementary visualisation and mapping tools are seamlessly integrated into modern cloud-based based architectures. Usage of a particular architecture is fully dependent on the nature, size, requirements, functionalities, and available resources of a given project or task. Desktop and server based applications are particularly suited for small sized projects and startups while enterprise based applications are meant for larger sized projects. Cloud based infrastructure can be useful for varying sizes of projects in which the computational infrastructure is fully outsourced.
This concept describes the major geospatial software architectures available currently and choices when designing GI applications and systems, including desktop GIS, server-based, Internet, and component-based custom applications.