Professor Hurley
English 145
3:35 MW
13 October 2014
Reflection
Our goal is to explain how technology and construction can work together to cut costs, improve communication, lessen human error, and accelerate the construction deadline. Tyler, being a Construction Management Major, and Mike, being a Computer Systems major, (both which happen to be in ISU’s Technology Department) we wanted to find a way to combine both of our perspective fields to help us understand how they relate to technology and how they work with each other in the real world. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), defines geographic information systems (GIS) as, “a way to visualize, question, analyze, and interpret data to understand relationships, patterns, and trends.” In short, GIS combines GPS, survey data, and building plans into a single visual representation. Our rationale to unify geographical data between contractors, architects, and engineers, into one easily accessible webpage. This provides for instantaneous collaboration through the cloud. The benefits of GIS services include costs savings through synergy, meaning that there’s improved cooperation and interaction between the construction teams. This provides stronger over all decision making. It also combines different layers which allow teams to input their data to the overall project. GIS is transforming the way that organizations manage their assets and serve customers. Through GIS, assets and resources are now being maintained as an enterprise information system to support day- to- day work management tasks. Cloud web servers have allowed small and large scale companies, affordable IT services. Amazon Web Services is one of these solutions and is fairly easy to manage with some basic networking skills. Essentially, businesses are outsourcing their “in house” servers to Amazon’s cloud. Amazon also has a storefront of pre-imaged servers which allows you to spin up your business application in a matter of minutes. In our presentation we have used a pre-imaged GIS server provided through Amazon. Mike has found a 30 day trial of MapDotUX for Windows Server 2012, awaiting Tyler’s approval. The setup is nearly effortless and cuts Mike’s costs, which he can then pass on to Tyler. Connecting to a cloud based server means portability. Construction offices and the job sites can manage and access the same data. Managers can use tablets and laptops to coordinate the teams on the ground. Tyler can communicate between his contractors/sub-contractors, in office/out of office, as well as on-site or with headquarters. This server will provide a central location for data to be exchanged between all of these teams, and provide a cheap, accessible,