Smart cities, small imaging satellites anticipated for 2016

Smart cities, hybrid architecture, and flocks of small imaging satellites are among the trends predicted for 2016, according to a blog by Boundless, which develops software for enterprise spatial IT applications.

Earth imaging satellites: “Gone are the days of waiting 7-10 days for a satellite to revisit and collect a new image over a location on Earth. Today, flocks of small, inexpensive satellites are now imaging the entire earth many times each day.” Both DARPA and NASA are planning on launching more imaging satellites. Fortune magazine discusses the trend in a recent article, and a new conference is devoted to them.

Hybrid architecture: “While open source continues to gain momentum, many organizations still leverage their investment in proprietary software and systems,” writes Anthony Calamito. “Building a hybrid platform can help an organization reduce risk and add value by avoiding single vendor lock-in, reducing costs associated with licensing, and promoting interoperability with existing software.”

Other trends outlined by Calamito include streaming data and the Internet of Things, which is leading to “smart cities” — “cities and their governments who have maximized data collection, data mining, and data-driven analytics for the betterment of their constituents,” Calamito writes. “Forbes magazine believes ‘smart city’ is a term we are going to be hearing a lot more of in the coming years as it’s thought that by 2020 we will be spending $400 billion a year building them.”

Read the full blog here.

IBM is working on with the City of Boston on smart city projects too solve long-standing urban challenges. (Credit: IBM)