From Stephan Heuel comes a very interesting case study that explores the possibilies of web apps based on the “cloud-native geo” paradigm: The “Swiss Rooftop Explorer” project demonstrates a cloud-native approach to accessing and visualizing geospatial data, specifically roof heights of buildings in Switzerland based on swisstopo’s swissBUILDINGS3D dataset.
Instead of relying on traditional GIS server architecture and infrastructure , the project leverages GeoParquet, DuckDB, Tippecanoe, PMTiles, and DuckDB-WASM for efficient data processing, storage and delivery. The toolchain is entirely open and in his blog post, Stephan Heuel compares the cloud-native approach to that of a more traditional GIS tech stack:
(…) I truly believe that there is something big behind all of this: The current (classic) web map architecture includes a publication database and a heavy and costly API layer. Just imagine you can get rid of both of them entirely while the user experience is the same!
The source for learning more about the “cloud-native geo” paradigm is of course the Cloud-Native Geospatial Forum.
In the Swiss geospatial industry, data is distributed in cloud-native formats e.g. under the swissEO product line (cf. also here for some more background). To my knowledge, in Switzerland the “cloud-native geo” paradigm has (only, I think (?)) been covered in a GeoStandards.ch-issued whitepaper by OPENGIS.ch, in the digital.ebp.ch blog and of course here, so far.