ISC releases public modernized, rich interactive geospatial platform

TALLAHASSEE, FL — November17th, 2008 — Today, ISC announced that it would launch its new product suite, MapDotNet UX on GIS Day, November 19th, 2008.

“Create, visualize, analyze and interact with your world. MapDotNet UX supports revolutionary new concepts around the creation, visualization, analysis and interaction with geospatial information,” said Mark Alexander, President of ISC; “This is the perfect solution for organizations that have GIS resources in place, but need to leverage those resources in new and modern ways; organizations that do not have GIS capabilities will find that we remove cost and complexity barriers to entry into geospatial technology.”

Product launch activities will be conducted during two GIS Day conferences. Benton Belcher of ISC will conduct activities at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference in Huntsville, Alabama which will include a keynote speech by Mr. Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI. Casey Donovan will be providing demonstrations at the Seven Hills Regional User Group for GIS in Tallahassee, Florida.

MapDotNet UX provides support for SQL Server 2008 as a spatial data repository as well as 2nd generation support for Microsoft Virtual Earth integration. MapDotNet UX also supports ESRI ArcSDE, PostGIS and shapefiles as spatial data sources, and will support Oracle Spatial soon.

“Our product engineers have delivered what we’ve all been looking forward to for quite some time—an easy to use geospatial application development platform and tools. Organizations looking to heighten the experience of users of their geospatial applications will find our support for Microsoft’s Silverlight and WPF user interface frameworks amazing” said Mr. Alexander.

The MapDotNet UX Silverlight and WPF ‘rich interactive map’ controls provide support for Virtual Earth tile layers, WMS tile layers, and other map sources through an extensible tile requester interface. MapDotNet UX also includes a tile server for developers using the Virtual Earth map control.

New to the MapDotNet platform is an interactive map design tool, MapDotNet UX Studio. ISC will offer a version of MapDotNet UX Studio as a free download with an unrestricted use license. This desktop application is developed completely in WPF and provides an easy to use interface for connecting to spatial data sources, designing map cartography, and creating map tile caches. Users can use Studio to design interactive maps that target Silverlight or WPF or to design and cache tile layers for overlay on Virtual Earth. According to Brian Hearn, MapDotNet product architect, “I think users are going to appreciate the ability to use Studio to migrate their spatial data into SQL08, through the use of its data exchange and transform capability.”

Representatives from Microsoft’s SQL Server and Virtual Earth teams also recognize the value that the combined Microsoft/MapDotNet solution is providing to its customers. “Microsoft places a great deal of importance on partner solutions.” said Kim Saunders, senior director of SQL Server marketing at Microsoft. “By taking advantage of the latest SQL Server technology, MapDotNet Server is a modernized geospatial solution for our customers.”

Ed Katibah, SQL Server Spatial Program Manager at Microsoft, is enthusiastic about partner solutions as well: “With MapDotNet Server, customers will have an immediate opportunity to utilize the spatial enhancements in SQL Server 2008 in their data visualization and GIS applications. Customers can visualize, query, and even edit spatial data stored in SQL Server within the Virtual Earth world. It is a powerful new paradigm for GIS.”

About ISC
Founded in 1989, ISC is a worldwide leader in software that combines today’s latest advances in web-based, consumer mapping with powerful enterprise GIS (geographic information systems). The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great geospatial software.

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MapDotNet is a trademark of ISC in the United States and other countries. Microsoft, Virtual Earth, SQL Server, Silverlight and WPF are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. ESRI, ArcGIS, ArcSDE and ArcGIS Server are either registered trademarks or trademarks of ESRI in the United States and/or other countries.

For more information:
Casey Donovan, 850.893.6741 ext. 1029, Email Contact

For more information on MapDotNet:
http://www.mapdotnet.com