Tuesday, August 22. 2006

Autodesk/Google Bundle

Oddly, the press release is only published in a German publication, but it highlights a new bundle for US government customers called the Autodesk Government Geospatial Solution with Google Earth Pro. It's available on the General Services Administration's (GSA) Schedule 70.

What's in it?

Autodesk Map 3D 2007
Autodesk Raster Design 2007
Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise(R) 2007
Google Earth Pro

cost details (Thanks Jason!)

Bundles seem really dated to me. Are we not moving toward "mix your own" solutions? On the other hand, I appreciate that Autodesk is trying to articulate how its products work with Google's.

Update 1:40 EDT: It's now on our website (posted by Autodesk's PR folks) and another GIS site (copied from the German one), but not Autodesk's. Gee, if it's that important, you'd think Autodesk would post it on its own website or its Autodesk Government website, no? Some sites will not post PRs unless they are on the publishing organization's website.

Comments

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Adena:

"Are we not moving toward 'mix your own' solutions?"

We, as in the 1/10th of 1% of the self-annointed tech savvy population that reads blogs, has GE, WorldWind, and 3 different desktop GIS platforms installed, etc. are certainly more than happy to mix and match as we please.

But where we see abundant choice, most of the world sees....rampant confusion?

My recent experiences with clients indicate that, in 2006, they are very surprised by--

1) Custom, work-related data inside spinning globes interfaces

2) Seeing a single data store mapped simultaneously with multiple front-ends

In short, the cutting edge, whether with dull blades or sharp, is still way out ahead of a huge portion of the potential customer base.


BT

#1 Brian Timoney (Link) on 2006-08-22 09:09 (Reply)

I'd have to agree with Brian here. A lot of folks would rather purchase a solution than build their own, and many are still impressed by seeing GIS data in Google Earth.

Unfortunately, as nicely as the OGC standards and adoption of the same seem to be coming along, there are still some huge gaps in interoperability that require serious work to get around when mixing and matching. These are very evident in areas that are important to me in my day job, such as annotation and curve support. Packaged solutions will still have a place until interoperability becomes easier.

I found a page with more details on this bundle, including pricing, here:
http://autodeskgovernment.com/default-ffye-bundles-gis.asp

#2 Jason Birch (Link) on 2006-08-22 10:38 (Reply)

Brian, Jason,

Yes, well-said on both counts. Brian's comment immediately made me think of when I bought my new bike. Friends insisted I build it from scratch, selecting individual components. They knew what to pick, but I wasn't savvy enough. So, I was very happy to let Trek do it for me. Jason's interoperability point is also well-taken. It'll be news when a consultant offers a formal bundle of software from several vendors that all works together! That's already happening with GIS/database pairings.

#3 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2006-08-23 07:15 (Reply)

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