CARTO is a cutting-edge Location Intelligence platform designed to leverage the power of spatial data and analysis for a wide range of applications. Here’s a comprehensive overview of what CARTO does and its key features:
What CARTO Does
CARTO is a cloud-first spatial platform that enables organizations to utilize spatial data for various business needs, such as optimizing delivery routes, enhancing behavioral marketing, strategic store placements, and predicting future outcomes through Spatial Data Science.
Key Features and Functionality
Cloud-Native Integration
CARTO runs natively on top of leading cloud data warehouse platforms like Google BigQuery, Snowflake, AWS Redshift, and others. This integration eliminates the need for data migration or complex ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes, ensuring seamless access to highly scalable spatial analysis and visualization capabilities.
Analytics Toolbox
The platform includes a suite of over 100 advanced spatial functions and procedures, grouped into modules such as tiler, data, clustering, and statistics. These functions are installed and run natively within the data warehouse, expanding its geospatial capabilities.
Dynamic Tiling and Visualization
CARTO features Dynamic Tiling technology, which allows for the creation of highly performant, interactive map visualizations. This technology generates optimized SQL queries to retrieve data from the cloud data warehouse and encodes it for efficient rendering by the GPU. It also employs caching strategies to reduce unnecessary computing load and ensure fast map loading.
No-Code Workflows
CARTO Workflows is a visual model builder that enables users to create complex spatial analyses and data preparation workflows without writing code. This tool supports importing data directly from public URLs and integrates with various database systems, providing robust and automated data management options.
Built-in GenAI Capabilities
The platform includes built-in capabilities leveraging cloud-native Large Language Models (LLMs) and Machine Learning models to enhance productivity and provide quicker insights.
Security and Governance
CARTO inherits data and user access controls from the underlying cloud data warehouse, ensuring streamlined security and governance. This approach maintains the integrity of the data and access permissions.
Data Observatory
CARTO offers access to thousands of vetted public and premium spatial datasets, which can be used for data enrichment or as additional layers for spatial apps and analyses. This feature saves time on gathering, cleaning, and analyzing data.
Developer Tools
For developers, CARTO provides a complete library of APIs, frameworks, connectors, and development tools to accelerate the development of spatial applications. The CARTO API allows interaction with data in external data warehouses to create performant cloud-native geospatial solutions.
Activity Data and Monitoring
The new CARTO Activity Data feature allows administrators to monitor and analyze how their organization is using CARTO. This includes tracking engagement indicators, most used features, quota consumption, and other insights, all of which can be exported manually or programmatically via API.
In summary, CARTO is a powerful tool that combines advanced spatial analytics, seamless cloud integration, and robust visualization capabilities, making it an indispensable platform for organizations looking to harness the full potential of their spatial data.