Overview of Spatial Support on the Cloud Databases

Liz Sanderson
Liz Sanderson
  • Updated

Introduction

Overview of Spatial Support on the Cloud databases

Relational Databases

Managed Databases

Industry-standard databases are offered as a managed service on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Database Cloud Platform Support Spatial Support FME Support
Maria DB (10.1.2+)
 
  • AWS
  • Azure
Spatial Types: Geometry and Geography
Supported Types: All main types.
Spatial Functions: All major functions.
Read, write and query.
MySQL ( 8.0+)
 
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google
Spatial Types: Geometry and Geography
Supported Types: All main types.
Spatial Functions: All major functions.
Read, write and query.
Oracle
  • AWS

Oracle Spatial and Oracle Locator are supported.

Spatial Types: Geometry and Geography
Supported Types: All main types.
Spatial Functions: All major functions.

Read, write and query.
PostgreSQL
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google

All clouds support the PostGIS extension.

Spatial Types: Geometry and Geography
Supported Types: All main types.
Spatial Functions: All major functions.

Read, write and query.
SQL Server
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google
Spatial Types: Geometry and Geography
Supported Types: All main types.
Spatial Functions: All major functions.

Read, write and query.

Cloud-Native Databases

Cloud-native databases are created by cloud providers and designed from the ground up to leverage the cloud architecture. They are often based on existing database engines but are optimized for the cloud with a focus on performance and availability.

Database Spatial Support FME Support
AWS Aurora RDS

Aurora supports both the MySQL and PostgreSQL database engines. Both of these engines have spatial data types enabled (PostGIS and MySQL).

Spatial Types: Geometry and Geography
Supported Types: All main types (e.g. Points, Lines, Polygons)
Spatial Functions: All PostGIS and MySQL functions.

Read, write and query.
Azure SQL Database

This is based on SQL Server with the same spatial support.

Spatial Types: Geometry and Geography
Supported Types: All main types (e.g. Points, Lines, Polygons)
Spatial Functions: All SQL Server functions.

Read, write and query.
Google Cloud Spanner

Cloud Spanner does not natively support geospatial queries. Google’s S2 library can be leveraged which uses spherical geometry and is used by Google itself on Google Maps.

This was deprecated in FME 2022

Read, write and query.

Data Warehouses

Data warehouses are interactive tools for analyzing large datasets. They enable you to store large volumes of data cheaply and provide an interface where you can run fast, complex queries across the data.

Database Spatial Support FME Support
AWS Athena Type of Support: Native
Spatial Types: Geometry
Supported Types: Points, Lines, Polygons, Multipoint, Multilines, Multipolygons and Geometry Collections
Spatial Functions: Over 30 functions
Query S3 datasets
AWS Redshift Type of Support: Native
Spatial Types: Geometry and 2D support only.
Supported Types: Points, Lines, Polygons, Multilines and Multipolygons
Spatial Functions: Over 40 functions
Read, write and query.
Google Big Query Type of Support: Native
Spatial Types: Geography
Supported Types: Points, Lines, Polygons.
Spatial Functions: Over 30 functions.
Read, write and query.
Snowflake Type of Support: Native
Spatial Types: Geography
Supported Types: Point, MultiPoint, LineString, MultiLineString, Polygon, MultiPolygon, GeometryCollection, Feature, FeatureCollection
Spatial Functions: Over 30 functions.

Read, write and query.

NoSQL Databases

NoSQL databases enable the storage and querying of vast amounts of unstructured data.

Database Spatial Support FME Support
AWS Dynamo DB No support. There used to be support for geohashes via an official library, this project has now been archived. Read and write.
Azure Cosmos DB Type of Support: Native
Spatial Types: Geography and Geometry
Supported Types: Points, Linestrings, Polygons, Multipolygons. Spatial Functions: Within, Distance, Intersects.
Read, write and query.
Google Cloud Firestore Type of Support: No native support, but there is support for geohashing via a 3rd party library.
Spatial Types: Geography
Supported Types: Points
Spatial Functions: Within, Distance, Bearing
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