22 / 2017-11-12 11:44:52

Research based on big data and cloud computing

Spatiotemporal computing, digital earth geospatial, cyberinfrastructure, geoinformatics, CyberGIS, Smart cities

The term big data arose under the explosive increase of global data as a technology that is able to store and process big and varied volumes of data, providing both enterprises and science with deep insights over its clients/experiments. Cloud computing provides a reliable, fault-tolerant, available and scalable environment to harbour big data distributed management systems. This paper surveys the two frontiers – Big Data and cloud computing – and reviews the advantages and consequences of utilizing cloud computing to tackling Big Data in the digital earth and relevant science domains. From the aspects of a general introduction, sources, challenges, technology status and research opportunities, the following observations are offered: (i) cloud computing and Big Data enable science discoveries and application developments; (ii) cloud computing provides major solutions for Big Data; (iii) Big Data, spatiotemporal thinking and various application domains drive the advancement of cloud computing and relevant technologies with new requirements; (iv) intrinsic spatiotemporal principles of Big Data and geospatial sciences provide the source for finding technical and theoretical solutions to optimize cloud computing and processing Big Data; (v) open availability of Big Data and processing capability pose social challenges of geospatial significance and (vi) a weave of innovations is transforming Big Data into geospatial research, engineering and business values. This review introduces future innovations and a research agenda for cloud computing supporting the transformation of the volume, velocity, variety and veracity into values of Big Data for local to global digital earth science and applications.