Oracle, MapInfo Collaborate to Bring GIS Out of the Ghetto

Computergram International, April 8, 1999

By Rachel Chalmers

Oracle Corp has teamed up with MapInfo Corp to build an internet- based spatial data analysis system on top of Oracle 8i. The initiative is important to Oracle because huge map-based databases are the classic proof of concept of database scalability (remember Microsoft's Terraserver?), and because the internet angle justifies the "internet computing" catchphrase the company has been bandying about for the last year or two. It's no less important to MapInfo, a young company by the standards of geographic information systems (GIS) vendors, and one which in order to survive must bootstrap GIS out of the ghetto of traditional mining and surveying applications and into the computing mainstream.

The deal covers new products, sales and consulting services and joint global marketing activities. MapInfo will sell Oracle 8i and its Jserver Java enterprise application server. Meanwhile, Oracle is licensing MapInfo's projection management code for implementation in future versions of Oracle Spatial, while the Oracle Server Industries division has hired 30 people to run a specialized consulting practice to support mapping and GIS. According to Jim Steiner, senior director of Oracle server technologies, it should be easy to drop the MapInfo/Oracle components into mainstream applications. "We're moving away from a traditional, proprietary-based model of GIS to one with all the technology advantages of Oracle 8I," he explains, "one that's simple, Java-based, internet-enabled and easily integrated with database, ERP and customer service applications.

Target industries include public services, telecommunications, health care, education, retail: "Not the traditional GIS market," Steiner points out, "but companies that are providing services to their customers, that derive value from being able to cut costs." "Maybe this is where GIS steps outside of its departmental environment," says Mark Gunn, vice-president of MapInfo, "maybe we can really broaden ourselves into markets where no one's there yet."