Odd to see so much hype of GIS without mention of specific tools. One stand out is the Postgresql extension PostGIS which makes a lot of powerful mapping operations relatively simple: https://postgis.net/
Given the title, would the medal not be more deserved by OpenStreetMaps? not to compare the two solutions in term of UX and featureset, but one is open, free, crowdfunded. The other is closed, not particularly affordable even for many use cases. There is space for businesses, but calling GIS a hero while OSM and it's community have done so much for open mapping data makes the article fall into the misinformercial category.