Bonn/New York November 19, 2010
OpenGeo, a global leader in open source GIS solutions, today announced a new partnership agreement with terrestris GmbH & Co. KG, a Bonn-based provider of geoinformation solutions. terrestris employs specialists who focus on geodata infrastructures and open source geoportals. This new relationship expands terrestris’ capabilities to offer customer solutions based on the fully integrated OpenGeo Suite geoplatform. terrestris employees will provide support to OpenGeo Suite Enterprise Edition users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the form of technical support. More complex inquiries will be handled in close coordination with OpenGeo’s experts. Due to the open source nature of the software components, the solutions developed will be fed back to the community.

Open source technologies are increasingly being identified by European governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses as the optimal solution, with the OpenGeo Suite being the first enterprise solution in the field of GIS with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). After announcing the agreement, Hinrich Paulsen, Managing Director of terrestris, said: “More and more large organizations in Europe are successfully using open source GIS software in productive environments. The partnership now formed with OpenGeo offers the best in support from core developers of the underlying software, so customers can sleep even more soundly.”

Chris Holmes, President of OpenGeo, added: “We look forward to working with terrestris and their local expertise in supporting OpenGeo Suite users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The alliance with terrestris will increase the value of open source in general and the OpenGeo Suite in particular for European users. After all, terrestris is based in Central Europe and is familiar with the regional and local characteristics of geodata infrastructures.”

OpenGeo has long been a proponent of FOSS implementations. These promote commercial efficiency and transparency in government activities. OpenGeo is known worldwide as a contributor to open source GIS technologies. terrestris has been successfully using open source software for years and passes on the knowledge gained to the community in the form of source code and publications.

The OpenGeo Suite is a complete, standards-compliant web mapping platform that meets the requirements of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The suite builds on proven and sustainable open source GIS components. These interoperable components, which include GeoServer, OpenLayers, GeoWebCache, PostGIS and GeoExt, are developed and maintained by active open source communities. The OpenGeo Suite allows enterprise users to use the coherent and powerful software components with the reliability and support of a single, stable provider.

About OpenGeo
OpenGeo is a non-profit venture whose goal is to perfect web-based GIS technology. The company transfers the experience and practices gained from open source software development to organizations worldwide that deal with spatial issues. To this end, they equip them with supported, tested and integrated open source GIS solutions.

OpenGeo also actively supports Open Source communities by employing core developers of PostGIS, Geoserver and OpenLayers. Since 2002, the company has successfully served clients such as the World Bank, Google, the British Land Registry, Portland TriMet, MassGIS, Landgate and the US Federal Communications Commission.
OpenGeo is the GIS division of OpenPlans, a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that engages with communities through journalism and open source software. All of OpenGeo’s profits have been and will be reinvested in innovative and useful software to support OpenPlans’ mission.

About terrestris
terrestris is a geoinformatics company from Bonn and originally a spin-off from the University of Bonn. Since 2002, terrestris has been active in the conception, implementation and maintenance of geodata infrastructures and geoportals using open source software such as PostGIS, OpenLayers and GeoServer. One focus is on real-time geodata acquisition for environmental monitoring. Wireless sensor networks are used for this purpose and their data is displayed in a WebGIS environment. terrestris’ customers include the federal states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg and Baden-Württemberg, the TÜV Rheinland Group, the University of Copenhagen, the Jülich Research Center and various municipalities, among other customers. terrestris has successfully carried out projects in the Middle East (Qatar), Africa (Benin) and Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Denmark) and is currently involved in a hydrological research project in Asia (Mongolia).

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Press contact
Hinrich Paulsen
terrestris GmbH & Co. KG
+49 228 962 899 51
info [at] terrestris [dot] de

The press release can be downloaded here in PDF format.