To explore the possibilities of using a mixed local and cloud-based GIS with MapD Core and MapD Immerse, let's create an instance (a virtual server) in the cloud. This cloud database will be accessed locally, using pymapd to perform queries and data management tasks.

Using AWS, we can create a server with GPU support. While I am using AWS here, MapD can be loaded into other cloud services, such as Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, as well as installed locally. These other cloud services have a community edition available as well.