GeoClarity is best described as an enterprise integration server
technology that can spatially enable enterprise systems and provide non-GIS systems and applications
with GIS functionality. GeoClarity allows non-GIS systems to communicate with GIS systems,
and with each other, providing true enterprise integration. Systems can easily access GIS
functionality, and GIS applications can easily access functionality and data provided by other systems.
While GeoClarity "out-of-the-box" provides an extensive suite of integration functionality;
a rich set of database support, GIS mapping and geo-coding, as well as robust reporting features,
the real power of GeoClarity is derived from its unique approach to extensibility. Designed
using the Microsoft .NET Framework, GeoClarity provides a rich Application Programming Interface
(API) that developers can use to extract data from other systems that utilize GeoClarity.
The API also provides a methodology by which developers can create their own GeoClarity
"Information Provider Objects"-building blocks designed to expose data and functionality in
a standardized way to other systems that employ GeoClarity.
As if simply providing enterprise integration to disparate systems wasn't enough, the designers of GeoClarity
went one step further with a "functional" approach to data integration. Each "building block" developed within
the GeoClarity architecture, may be designed to take other building blocks as parameters. These parameter building
blocks may exist in the same system or be exposed by a totally unrelated system. Simply put: The result of
a process from one system may be used as the input for a process on another system. That result may be used
as the input for another process, and so on.
In short; GeoClarity provides a robust architecture by which organizations can tie their unrelated systems together,
incorporating GIS functionality where necessary, in a flexible, extensible manner.
