You’ve sourced the EO imagery for your next project. Your order is complete. But getting that data into the tools your team works with is still painfully manual.
So your team finds itself in a strange situation where the real friction begins after data delivery. Files need to be downloaded, reformatted, imported into their GIS environments, and shared. Workflows that should take minutes can stretch into hours, especially when projects span multiple assets, large geographic areas, or different tools.
The root of the problem is the disconnect between where the data lives, and where teams need to view and work with it.
A fragmented ecosystem
Geospatial workflows today depend on a mix of platforms and tools: commercial GIS platforms, internal web applications, and custom analytics environments all play different roles. But they often don’t integrate cleanly with the platforms where imagery is sourced and managed.
As a result, analysts are left bridging the gaps manually. That creates operational overhead that most teams know too well:
- Downloading and transferring large datasets before the project can begin
- Managing duplicate files across teams and environments
- Stitching together multiple assets for large area projects
- Building custom scripts and workarounds just to move imagery between systems
- Maintaining access control as data moves through different pipelines
All of these minor-to-medium inefficiencies compound and turn into major ones. A utility monitoring vegetation risk across hundreds of kilometers or a forestry company reviewing imagery across different sites shouldn’t need to spend hours preparing data before analysis can even start.
Streaming is becoming the new standard
Modern web mapping platforms solved this problem through tile-based streaming standards like Web Map Tile Service (WMTS). Instead of downloading full datasets upfront, GIS applications request only the imagery tiles needed for a given view, exactly when they’re needed.
The result is a more connected workflow. Data stays centralized while teams access it directly inside the environments they already use.
But despite WMTS being a widely adopted standard, accessing purchased commercial imagery through authenticated streaming workflows is still more complicated than it should be. Many teams still rely on manual exports, custom integrations, or third party infrastructure just to make imagery usable inside their own GIS stack.
Coming to the UP42 platform
We’re working to simplify that.
UP42 customers on the Enterprise plan can use WMTS streaming for purchased assets, making it possible to generate secure, authenticated WMTS URLs directly from the UP42 console and API.
With WMTS streaming, you’ll be able to:
- Stream imagery instantly into your GIS environment
- Stream multiple assets simultaneously for large scale projects and broader geographic coverage
- Reduce manual downloads, imports, and file handling across workflows
Your imagery should be ready to view and work with directly inside the GIS environments your teams already use, where your work already happens. More updates on this coming very soon. For now, you can find out more about WMTS here.
