The CTO’s Checklist: 17 Critical Questions Before Switching GIS Tech Stacks

As organizations push against the limitations of legacy systems, CTOs of GIS solutions face a pivotal decision: maintain the status quo or embrace modern GIS capabilities that could transform their operational efficiency.

Whether you're actively evaluating platforms or starting to explore your options, these questions will guide you toward a confident, well-informed decision.

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Technical Foundation

Before diving into specific tech stacks/platforms, it's crucial to evaluate your technical requirements and constraints. These questions help you assess whether a new platform can handle your current needs and future growth while maintaining security and compliance standards.

• 1. Scalability & Performance

  1. □ Does your data input contain millions of points, geometries or pixels that will crash QGIS or ArcGIS?

  2. □ Does your GIS workflow require enterprise hardware to run?

  3. □ What are the performance benchmarks for our most common operations?

  4. □ How does the platform scale with increasing users and data?

  5. □ What are the hardware/infrastructure requirements?

• 2. Integration & Compatibility

  1. □ Does the platform support our existing data formats?

  2. □ How well does it integrate with our current tech stack?

  3. □ What APIs and integration options are available?

  4. □ Are there any legacy systems that require special consideration?

• 3. Security & Compliance

  1. □ What security certifications does the platform hold?

  2. □ How is data encrypted at rest and in transit?

  3. □ What access control mechanisms are available?

  4. □ Does it meet our compliance requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.)?

• 4. GIS Features

  1. □ Does your system need to support various basemap options?

  2. □ Does your system require on the fly analytics using python?

  3. □ Does your system require automated analytics using SQL?

  4. □ Does your system need a dashboard or graph charts on map data?

  5. □ Is it beneficial for foundation LLM models like GPT to be integrated into your system?

Operational Impact

The success of a GIS platform switch heavily depends on your migration strategy and team preparedness. These questions help you understand the practical implications of the transition and identify potential operational challenges.

• 5. System Maintenance

  1. □ How many GIS engineers are required to maintain the existing code, integrated systems, and debug issues?

  2. □ Do you need the solution to be long running (>5 years) and not affected by hardware/OS ageing issues such as Windows OS lifespan?

• 6. Migration Path

  1. □ Which portion of the solutions will be migrated first? Workflow or source data?

  2. □ What is the estimated timeline for full migration?

  3. □ Can we run systems in parallel during transition?

  4. □ How are existing workflows transferred?

  5. □ How large is all the data to be migrated to the new system??

• 7. Team Readiness

  1. □ What training is required for our team?

  2. □ How different is the new platform's interface?

  3. □ What technical skills are needed for maintenance

  4. □ Is there a certification program for our team?

Business Considerations

Beyond technical capabilities, you need to ensure the platform makes business sense. These questions help you evaluate the financial impact, vendor reliability, and long-term viability of your investment.

• 8. Total Cost of Ownership

  1. □ What is the full cost breakdown (licensing, training, maintenance)?

  2. □ Are there hidden costs we should consider?

  3. □ How does pricing scale with usage?

  4. □ What is the ROI timeline?

  5. □ Are there grants available to support your solution development?

• 9. Vendor Stability

  1. □ How long has the vendor been in business?

  2. □ What is their track record with enterprise clients?

  3. □ How often do they release updates?

  4. □ What is their support structure?

• 10. Future-Proofing

  1. □ What is the platform's product roadmap?

  2. □ How do they handle emerging technologies (AI, big data)?

  3. □ What is their innovation track record?

  4. □ How flexible is the platform for custom development?

Risk Mitigation

Every major system change carries risks. These questions help you identify potential issues early and ensure proper safeguards are in place to protect your operations during and after

the transition.

• 11. Support & Maintenance

  1. □ What are their SLA terms?

  2. □ How is emergency support handled?

  3. □ What is the update/maintenance schedule?

  4. □ How are service disruptions managed?

• 12. Data Governance

  1. □ How is data backup handled?

  2. □ What disaster recovery options are available?

  3. □ How is data lineage tracked?

  4. □ What data management tools are provided?

• 13. Performance Monitoring

  1. □ What monitoring tools are included?

  2. □ How is system health tracked?

  3. □ What performance metrics are available?

  4. □ How are alerts and notifications handled?

Team Impact

Your team's ability to adapt and thrive with the new platform is crucial for success. These questions help you assess the human element of the change and ensure proper support for your staff.

• 14. User Adoption

  1. □ How intuitive is the interface?

  2. □ What training resources are available?

  3. □ How is user feedback incorporated?

  4. □ What is the learning curve to use the new tech stack?

• 15. Workflow Changes

  1. □ How will daily operations change?

  2. □ What processes need to be redesigned?

  3. □ How are custom workflows handled?

  4. □ What automation options exist?

  5. □ Are CRON Job workflows needed?

Strategic Value

Finally, consider how this change will position your organization for the future. These questions help you evaluate the platform's ability to drive innovation and support your long-term business objectives.

• 16. Competitive Advantage

  1. □ What unique features does the platform offer?

  2. □ Which companies are your competitors?

  3. □ How does it compare to industry status-quo?

  4. □ What innovation opportunities does it enable?

  5. □ How will it impact our service delivery?

• 17. Growth Support

  1. □ How does the platform support business expansion?

  2. □ What geographic regions are supported?

  3. □ How are new users/departments onboarded

  4. □ What enterprise features are included?

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Switching GIS tech stacks is a significant undertaking that requires careful consideration of multiple factors. This checklist serves as your roadmap to making an informed decision that aligns with both your technical needs and business objectives.

Remember that the goal isn't just to change platforms, it's to enhance your organization's spatial data capabilities while minimizing disruption to your operations.

Interested to explore a modern, cloud-native GIS platform? NikaPlanet offers a better one-stop alternative to the suite of ArcGIS solutions at a lower cost, with features designed for enterprise-scale operations.

Book a chat and personalized demo where we will:

• Analyze your current GIS infrastructure costs

• Demonstrate NikaPlanet's 20-100x processing speeds

• Show how our all-in-one platform eliminates data transfer inefficiencies

• Walk through our streamlined migration process

• Calculate your potential cost savings

Contact us or schedule a free 45-minute consultation to get started!