Overview

Stratos is a secure and scalable platform designed for the management and distribution of geospatial data assets, including aerial and satellite imagery, digital terrain models, vector data, and various other geospatial formats. By transforming data into web services, Stratos ensures seamless integration with nearly any geospatial application, whether mobile or web-based. Our APIs adhere to Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards, providing broad compatibility and easy access for users across different platforms.

Platform Components

The Stratos platform is composed of a number of interrelated functional components:

Data Management

Stratos uses a MariaDB database to store its core information, including metadata, user accounts, audit logs, and certain types of geospatial data. By extending the MariaDB geospatial engine, Stratos adds support for raster data, map tiles, multiple coordinate systems, and various other features. Although the database itself is not intended for direct queries, it functions as the central hub for the APIs, which serve as the primary access points for users.

Storage

The platform uses a hybrid data storage model. Vector data, such as points, lines, and polygons, is loaded directly into the database. Raster data, including imagery and digital terrain models, is registered and managed by the database but remains stored in its original file-based format.

Web Service APIs

Stratos turns data into web services. The Stratos APIs implement a suite of services as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The CubeWerx implementations of these APIs are the most functionally complete and historically comprehensive, encompassing all versions of the relevant specifications. They automatically switch, using version negotiation to match the requests sent by any client. The APIs support the modern OGC API (REST) family of standards as well as the XML-based legacy standards.

Security and Access Control

Users can authenticate on the platform using the included authentication service or any OpenID-compatible service, such as Google. Stratos features a geo-enabled, role-based security gateway that allows administrators to restrict content based on various criteria. This includes filtering by geographical regions, API operations, data resolution, and more.

Quotas and Auditing

All API usage is tracked and recorded across a comprehensive set of metrics, down to individual pixels and CPU cycles. The MariaDB audit database can be queried directly by application developers to implement billing and accounting. Additionally, a quota system allows administrators to set role-based limits on API usage.