The consumerization of technology has reshaped the landscape of industries over the past few decades. From the early days when corporate IT departments maintained tight control over technology, we’ve moved to an era where employees use personal devices and cloud services to get work done. This trend, known as the consumerization of IT, has both challenged and empowered organizations, forcing them to adopt new policies and frameworks to manage the use of personal technology in the workplace.

Now, a similar trend is occurring in the realm of geospatial data. The availability of geospatial and satellite data has exploded, driven by the proliferation of open data initiatives, advanced mapping tools, and accessible platforms that provide high-resolution satellite imagery and geospatial intelligence. Just like IT, geospatial data is no longer confined to specialized departments or experts within an organization; it’s accessible to almost anyone with an internet connection. This shift presents both opportunities and challenges, requiring organizations to develop strategies for embracing rather than resisting this trend.

The Rise of Consumerized Geospatial Data

Geospatial data, once the domain of specialized agencies and commercial providers, is now widely available thanks to platforms like Google Earth, OpenStreetMap, and a host of commercial satellite imagery providers and marketplaces. These platforms democratize access to geospatial information, allowing individuals and businesses to leverage this data for various applications, from agriculture and urban planning to disaster response and environmental monitoring.

This democratization mirrors the consumerization of IT, where cloud services, mobile devices, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms have enabled employees to bypass traditional IT channels. Similarly, the consumerization of geospatial data allows users to access and use data without the need for an organization’s central approval or control.

Organizations face a new reality: employees and stakeholders are using geospatial data from external sources, often without the knowledge or oversight of their geospatial departments. This shift has significant implications for compliance, data management, and budgeting.

Embracing Consumerization: A Necessary Strategy

Resisting the consumerization of geospatial data is a losing battle. Instead, organizations should focus on embracing this trend by developing comprehensive policies and strategies. This involves understanding how geospatial data is being used within the organization, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, managing data effectively, and budgeting for these new expenses.

Understanding Usage and Applications

The first step in embracing the consumerization of geospatial data is understanding how it is being used across the organization. This includes identifying who is using geospatial data, what types of data are being accessed, and for what purposes. Unlike traditional geospatial data use, which was often limited to GIS specialists, today’s use cases can range from marketing teams analyzing demographics to logistics departments optimizing delivery routes.

Ensuring Compliance and Governance

With the proliferation of geospatial data sources, organizations must ensure compliance with data privacy laws, intellectual property rights, and usage agreements. This is particularly important as employees might access and use data without fully understanding the legal implications. Organizations should develop clear guidelines and training programs to ensure that employees understand the sources they can use and the constraints associated with each source. This also includes setting up a data governance framework that outlines who can access what types of data and under what conditions.

Data Management and Security

As with the consumerization of IT, where data management and security became paramount, the consumerization of geospatial data requires robust data management strategies. Organizations need to track the data that is being used, ensure it is stored securely, and protect it from unauthorized access. This also involves integrating geospatial data management into existing IT frameworks, ensuring that data from external sources is handled with the same level of care and scrutiny as internal data.

Budgeting and Cost Management

The widespread use of geospatial data from various sources can lead to unexpected costs. Organizations need to budget for geospatial data in the same way they budget for other IT expenses. This includes understanding the cost structures of different data providers, predicting data usage needs, and ensuring that data acquisition aligns with organizational goals. Just as with cloud services in IT, where costs can quickly spiral without proper management, geospatial data costs need to be carefully monitored and controlled.

Developing Policies for Effective Management

To effectively embrace the consumerization of geospatial data, organizations should develop clear, comprehensive policies that address compliance, management, and budgeting. These policies should be tailored to the specific needs and use cases of the organization, but several key elements are generally applicable:

Data Access Policies

Define who can access geospatial data and under what conditions. This should include guidelines for both internal and external data sources, specifying approved providers and platforms. It should also outline the process for requesting access to new data sources.

Usage Guidelines

Provide clear guidelines on how geospatial data can be used, ensuring that all employees understand the legal and ethical implications of data use. This should cover intellectual property rights, data privacy laws, and any specific usage restrictions associated with particular data sources.

Data Security Policies

Incorporate geospatial data into existing data security policies, ensuring that data is stored securely and protected from unauthorized access. This should include guidelines for data encryption, access controls, and regular audits to ensure compliance with security standards.

Cost Management Policies

Establish clear policies for managing the costs associated with geospatial data. This should include guidelines for budgeting, cost tracking, and cost-benefit analysis to ensure that data acquisition aligns with organizational goals and provides value.

Training and Awareness

Develop training programs to ensure that all employees understand the organization’s geospatial data policies. This should cover everything from the basics of geospatial data to specific guidelines and best practices for data use within the organization.

Leveraging Consumerized Geospatial Data for Strategic Advantage

While the consumerization of geospatial data presents challenges, it also offers significant opportunities. Organizations that embrace this trend and develop effective policies can leverage geospatial data for strategic advantage. By democratizing access to geospatial data, organizations can empower employees to make data-driven decisions, foster innovation, and improve operational efficiency.

For example, marketing teams can use geospatial data to better understand customer demographics and optimize advertising campaigns. Logistics departments can leverage satellite imagery and mapping tools to optimize delivery routes and reduce costs. Urban planners can use geospatial data to analyze land use patterns and develop more effective zoning regulations.

By embracing the consumerization of geospatial data, organizations can tap into a wealth of information that was previously inaccessible or underutilized. This can lead to better decision-making, increased efficiency, and a competitive edge in the marketplace.

How SkyWatch HUB Helps Solve the Problem of Geospatial Data Consumerization

As organizations navigate the complexities of the consumerization of geospatial data, platforms like SkyWatch HUB provide critical solutions to manage the influx of data from diverse sources while maintaining control, compliance, and cost-efficiency. SkyWatch HUB is designed to simplify the acquisition, management, and integration of geospatial data, making it a powerful tool for organizations dealing with the challenges of consumerized data access.

Centralized Data Access and Management

One of the core problems with the consumerization of geospatial data is the fragmentation of data sources. Employees and departments often pull data from different providers, which can lead to inconsistencies in data quality, format, and compliance with regulations. SkyWatch HUB addresses this issue by providing a centralized platform where organizations can access high-quality geospatial data from a variety of satellite providers, including high-resolution imagery and other geospatial intelligence.

SkyWatch HUB’s centralized approach means that all users within an organization can work from a single, consistent source of geospatial data, ensuring that data quality and accuracy are maintained. This also enables geospatial departments to regain control over which data sources are being used, while still providing employees with the flexibility they need to access relevant information for their projects.

Simplified Data Compliance

Another significant challenge of the consumerization of geospatial data is ensuring compliance with data privacy laws, intellectual property rights, and usage agreements. Employees who source geospatial data from consumer-grade platforms may not be aware of the legal implications or restrictions tied to specific data sources.

SkyWatch HUB helps solve this problem by pre-vetting data providers and ensuring that all data available through the platform complies with relevant legal standards and licensing agreements. This removes the burden from individual employees to understand and comply with complex data licensing, as the platform ensures that all data is legally sourced and used within organizational and legal parameters.

Additionally, SkyWatch HUB provides detailed metadata with each dataset, ensuring that users can easily understand the provenance, licensing restrictions, and quality of the data they are working with. This helps organizations maintain compliance and reduce the risk of inadvertent data misuse or legal issues.

Cost Management and Predictable Budgeting

In the same way that the consumerization of IT introduced hidden costs through the unsanctioned use of cloud services or software, the consumerization of geospatial data can lead to unexpected expenses. Employees accessing geospatial data from multiple external sources can generate unpredictable costs, making it difficult for organizations to manage their budgets effectively.

SkyWatch HUB provides a solution by offering transparent pricing and flexible data plans, allowing organizations to better control their data acquisition costs. The platform’s subscription model means that organizations can predict and budget for their data needs more accurately. Additionally, the ability to access a wide range of data from a single platform eliminates the need to manage multiple provider relationships and pricing models, further simplifying cost management.

By consolidating data acquisition through SkyWatch HUB, organizations can gain better visibility into their geospatial data expenditures, ensuring that they are getting the best value for their investment. The platform’s flexible pricing structure also allows organizations to scale their data usage up or down as needed, providing cost-efficiency without compromising on access to critical data.

Integration with Existing Systems

Another key benefit of SkyWatch HUB is its ability to integrate seamlessly with an organization’s existing geospatial tools and workflows. As the consumerization of geospatial data increases, organizations often face challenges in integrating data from multiple sources into their existing systems. Different data formats, resolutions, and coordinate systems can make it difficult to incorporate consumer-grade data into professional workflows.

SkyWatch HUB addresses this challenge by providing data in standardized formats that are compatible with most geospatial software and tools. This ensures that the data can be easily integrated into existing systems, workflows, and analysis pipelines. Whether an organization is using geographic information systems (GIS), business intelligence platforms, or custom applications, SkyWatch HUB simplifies the process of integrating and analyzing geospatial data.

This seamless integration not only reduces the time and effort required to process geospatial data but also enhances the overall productivity of teams across the organization. With SkyWatch HUB, geospatial data becomes a natural part of an organization’s decision-making process, providing real-time insights that can drive better outcomes.

Conclusion

As geospatial data becomes increasingly accessible and integrated into everyday business processes, organizations that are proactive in embracing this trend will be better positioned to succeed in an increasingly data-driven world.

By providing a centralized platform for data access, ensuring compliance with legal and licensing requirements, and offering flexible pricing and seamless integration with existing systems, SkyWatch HUB helps organizations embrace the consumerization of geospatial data without losing control.

With SkyWatch HUB, organizations can turn the challenges of consumerized data into opportunities for innovation, empowering their teams to leverage high-quality geospatial data for better decision-making while maintaining the governance, security, and cost control necessary for long-term success. Instead of resisting the trend, organizations can embrace it, confident that SkyWatch HUB will provide the infrastructure they need to thrive in the new geospatial data landscape.

Visit https://skywatch.com/products/hub to learn more and request your HUB trial.

Taking photos from orbiting satellites, also known as “tasking,” is a practice among many Earth Observation [EO] data providers.

After seeing some comments on Twitter, we wanted to outline the value of tasking satellites and how SkyWatch’s platform EarthCache can help you take amazing photos on Earth from space. In this article, we’ll define tasking, its benefits, how SkyWatch helps you access tasking satellites and show some examples of incredible imagery.

If you have questions about satellite imagery, we encourage you to Tweet your question with our new hashtag: #askskywatch. We’ll answer your questions through our blogs, videos or a conversation!

What are Tasking Satellites?

Tasking is “ordering” new satellite imagery from a specific satellite. To task a satellite, coordinates of an area of interest (AOI), time frame and interval are sent to the satellite provider. The satellite will capture an image of that area during the specified time period, weather permitting. The “tasked” image is then provided to the customer in their specified output format. The available outputs are based on the satellite’s capabilities. Tasking satellite imagery provides a customized experience where you can specify the exact place, time frame, resolution and amount of KM covered in the imagery. 

Tasking satellites can be used for various purposes, such as monitoring environmental conditions, tracking weather patterns, or studying the effects of climate change. They can also monitor human activity, such as mapping urban areas or measuring traffic congestion. In addition, tasking satellites can be used for communications, such as providing coverage for cell phones or broadcasting television signals.

There are different types of tasking satellites, each designed to perform a specific function. However, all tasking satellites share common features, such as the ability to receive commands from ground controllers and transmit data back to Earth.

 

Benefits of Using SkyWatch for Tasking Satellites

SkyWatch’s mission is to democratize earth observation [EO] data, and through our platform TerraStream, we have a strong network of data providers that can meet commercial needs for satellite imagery. TerraStream is a platform for industry-leading providers to sell EO data, and EarthCache is a platform to buy EO data. On EarthCache, you can purchase archival data or task a satellite of your desired AOI. 

Here are just a few of the benefits of using our services:

1. 1. Access to high-quality imagery. When you task a satellite through EarthCache, you’ll have access to some of the highest-quality imagery available. This means you’ll be able to capture stunning shots that would otherwise be impossible to get.

2. 2. Access to historical imagery. Archival data or images captured by others are available in the EarthCache database. If there is imagery that fits your needs for a project, you don’t have to task a satellite to get it; you can purchase what is available. 

3. 3. Affordable pricing. We understand that not everyone has an unlimited budget for their projects, but that shouldn’t be a barrier to accessing valuable data.

       

      • • That’s why we offer competitive pricing.

3. 3. Personalized service. When you work with SkyWatch, you’ll receive personalized attention and service throughout the process. We’ll work with you to get the data you need for your analysis.

Types of Images You Can Capture Through SkyWatch’s Solutions

Tips for Tasking Strong Imagery

Even with the best technology in orbit, taking photos from space can have nuances.

Here are some tips for getting the most out of tasking satellites:

1. 1. Check the weather conditions before scheduling your tasking. Avoiding a storm or cloudy days will strengthen your results. 

2. 2. Understand what data you need to get the right satellites to capture your data. Different satellites have different resolutions and image types (near-infrared, etc.), so be sure to select the outputs that will give you the results you’re looking for. If you’re unsure where to start, check out our Ultimate Satellite Imagery Guide. 

3. 3. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare. Latency can vary based on the size of your AOI, resolution type and re-visit rates necessary for your imagery. Give yourself a buffer so you can meet your project needs on time. 

3. 3. Follow all instructions provided by SkyWatch carefully. This will ensure that your tasking goes smoothly and that you get the best images.

Conclusion

SkyWatch can be a great source for those who want to capture meaningful data. Tasking satellites brings customization to a new level. If you’re looking to monitor an area for object detection, object clarification, event detection or change detection, tasking satellites can be a great method. 

For more answers to your questions about the world of Earth Observation, tweet your question with #askskywatch.

At SkyWatch, we believe that Earth Observation should be simple for everyone.

If you’re a satellite operator, you have unique needs to serve a market of high-value customers. TerraStream is a platform you can leverage to manage, process and deliver your data to a wider market.

In addition, we have an aggregation platform called EarthCache that allows different users to commit and access various different data sources.

The two of those products work really well together.

You can think of TerraStream as a “Shopify for satellite data.”

If you were going to build your own website now to sell a product, you wouldn’t build your own checkout experience and shopping cart. You would use something like Shopify to do that for you.

That’s what TerraStream does.

Similarly, when you buy coffee filters and go to Amazon.com, you really don’t care where that coffee filter comes from.

You will search and find the product that suits you based on your needs.

With SkyWatch, EarthCache and TerraStream provide the best of both worlds.

TerraStream allows you to sell directly to your high-value customers and effectively outsource the lower volume sales to our EarthCache platform.

Plus, with both, you get the full power of our sales team working for you and an immediate marketplace of Earth Observation data buyers.

So why should you care about TerraStream?

Many satellite companies that we talk to, especially the seed-funded early-stage ones, are very entrepreneurial, very smart engineers.

They believe they can build anything, and they probably can. The question is, what should they build?

When you’re building a platform for a satellite constellation, there are many things to worry about.

Data infrastructure is normally not at the top of the list. In fact, it’s something that many companies don’t consider until they’re already in space. It’s a last-minute thing to decide how you will monetize your data.

But with TerraStream, you can take care of that distribution, data management, and processing commercialization component – without ever having to hire an engineering team.

The biggest satellite companies out there have spent many millions of dollars, from $60-$100 million is not uncommon, to build a data distribution platform. With TerraStream, you get the power of a $60 million or a $100 million data platform for a fraction of the price.

So why not build a solution like TerraStream yourself?

Satellite operators have a real challenge getting their data into the hands of the end-users TerraStream solves this exact problem and helps them access an audience of buyers.

Back in the days before Cloud computing, you had to build your own data centers. There was a tremendous amount of cost involved in that.

You had to build up the infrastructure, and there was a cost in operating, maintaining it, and applying security patches.

When you buy a Software as a Service product like TerraStream, it enables you to manage and distribute your data while also getting you the power of the entire SkyWatch platform to sell your data and content.

You Get Software And A Team Of Experts Included

We have an outstanding team of data engineers, machine learning engineers, and image processing specialists. It would be extremely expensive to acquire these skills – and time-consuming – if you wanted to do this on your own.

And these kinds of activities are really undifferentiated for you. You need them to generate, distribute and sell your content and data – but they are not your core business.

You should be looking at things like how you improve your optics and your sensors. And we then help with those undifferentiated items like delivering your data to the market, things that every satellite company needs to do but isn’t core business.

You Can Also Sell Your Data On Our Platform

It’s one thing to build a platform; it’s another to be able to sell the data.

With TerraStream, you can monetize your data on a Whitelabel boutique e-commerce front end. Think of it as “Shopify for Earth observation data.”

Specifically:

• We can customize it for you.
• You can have direct access to customers who are looking for your data today.
• And your sales team can focus on targeting those high-value customers you want to sell directly to.

In addition, TerraStream also allows you access to our aggregation platform, EarthCache, where we have many customers who are demanding different types of data all the time. With over 500,000 API calls per month and a sales team that is actively out-selling data, when you are a TerraStream customer, you can distribute your data on our EarthCache platform.

The Two Resolutions To Focus On

Satellite imagery can be very intimidating because there’s a wide range of resolutions.

And as a new person in the industry, you might be completely overwhelmed.

At a high level there are two resolutions we think of in the satellite imagery ecosystem.

We think of Spatial Resolution which is much the same way you think of the newer iPhones having a better camera than the older iPhones.

And we think of Spectral Resolution which are the specific bands in the electromagnetic spectrum that each sensor is capturing.

So, to use the iPhone example, that captures a multispectral set of bands.

RGB that means that your human eye can see it.

But oftentimes there are bands in the electromagnetic spectrum that your human eye can’t actually see.

Higher Resolution Is Not Always Better

Now, as humans,we default to always thinking that the higher the resolution, the better.

But that’s not always the case.

On SkyWatchwe have a range of resolutions that you can access all via a single easy to use console.

We have low resolution around 10 m per pixel. Medium resolution, 1.5 to 3 m per pixel. And high resolution about 0.5 m per pixel.

To give a sense of high how high resolution that is, you can see the outlines of cards in a car parking lot at 50 centimeters.

Now while high resolution satellite imagery provides maybe a bit more detail, it also incurs a much higher cost on a per square kilometer basis.

See What You Need For Free

What we actually recommend customers to do is to come onto the EarthCache platform.

Use low resolution data, which is free, and begin experimenting to see what they can actually accomplish with low resolution data, only moving up to paid data in the medium resolution and high resolution camps once their business needs require it.

Now this is juxtaposed to many data providers who will try to make you sign a high resolution contract immediately.

We actually take the opposite approach.

We want you to come onto the platform experiment, see what works and only begin paying for data once it’s actually useful to your business use case. 

Getting Your ROI From Satellite Data

An example industry where this is most prevalent is in agriculture. Agriculture has a wide variety of needs and oftentimes they’re looking for a field by field analysis as to their specific crop health.

Now you could accomplish this via high resolution tasking data, but it will get expensive pretty quickly.

And occasionally there’s also spectral bands that high resolution multispectral sensors wouldn’t actually capture.

A perfect example of this is the red edge band which is particularly useful for vegetation management,  is not captured in high resolution multispectral tasking satellites, but it is captured at the medium resolution range.

Couple that with wider swathe widths, lower price per square kilometer and it’s a no brainer to use medium resolution data for a lot of your agriculture needs.

Scaling To Get The Right Value

At the end of the day cost and value created don’t scale on a 1 to 1 basis.

There are diminishing returns as you increase your spend on satellite imagery.

And one thing that we really want to advocate for customers to look at is to make sure that it makes sense to increase that resolution such that it matches the return on investment within their actual business.

If that equation doesn’t make sense, then the long term validity of using satellite imagery in your business won’t make sense either.

What people who are using this data to ultimately serve to an end customer need to realize is the end customer just cares about the insight. And at the end of the day, satellite data is just one data source that you’re using in a multitude of data sources to ultimately deliver insights.

By you being more cost effective and how you use satellite imagery, it will ultimately create a better experience for your customers, which will in turn make them more likely to use satellite imagery and creates a virtuous circle.

The Problems Facing Earth Observation Businesses

We’ve had a chance to speak to a lot of companies in the Earth Observation business.

There is number of challenges that they have when they’re launching satellites.

At SkyWatch we’ve built a product that solves the problems of:

1. Monetization
2. Data management
3. And distribution

But there are also other problems that satellite operators have.

It became apparent to us that we needed to partner with the leaders in the industry who are capable of solving these problems.

Why Not Build Your Own Partnership Network?

So why wouldn’t you just go forge these relationships yourself?

Well, we’ve been fortunate enough to work with the leaders in the industry.

We’ve gone through an extensive vetting process with all of them.

We understand their technology, we understand our interfaces with them.

We’re looking to save you time by showing you the best that’s available out there.

We work with the top companies in each of these areas, so you don’t have to go through an extensive vetting process to determine which ones are the best for you.

What TerraStream Includes

This is what you get with TerraStream.

Included in the service you get all the partners you need –  industry leading partners for the essentials like:

• ground stations,
• mission planning software,
• command and control
• and raw data processing.

To find out more about TerraStream, contact us directly on skywatch.com/contact/