Who this book is for

The aim of this book is to carry on this trend and demonstrate how even advanced spatial analysis is convenient with an open source product, and how this software is a capable competitor of proprietary solutions. The examples from which you will learn how to harness the power of the capable GIS software, QGIS; the powerful spatial ORDBMS (object-relational database management system), PostGIS; and the user-friendly geospatial server, GeoServer are aimed at IT professionals looking for cheap alternatives to costly proprietary GIS solutions with or without basic GIS training.

On the other hand, anyone can learn the basics of these great open source products from this practical guide. If you are a decision maker looking for easily producible results, a CTO looking for the right software, or a student craving for an easy-to-follow guide, it doesn't matter. This book presents you the bare minimum of the GIS knowledge required for effective work with spatial data, and thorough but easy-to-follow examples for utilizing open source software for this work.