{"id":217422,"date":"2019-04-03T23:55:16","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T06:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=217422"},"modified":"2024-03-27T10:25:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T17:25:05","slug":"the-emergence-of-a-geospatial-cloud","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/the-emergence-of-a-geospatial-cloud","title":{"rendered":"The Emergence of a Geospatial Cloud"},"author":1432,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10382,319892,275982],"tags":[163382,35312,12352,282072,12162],"arcnews_issues":[327822],"class_list":["post-217422","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esri-technology","category-geospatial-cloud","category-vision","tag-arcgis-online","tag-cloud-computing","tag-cloud-technology","tag-geospatial-technology","tag-tech-trends","arcnews_issues-spring-2019","arcnews_sections-news"],"acf":{"short_description":"The Esri Geospatial Cloud, which describes the entirely web-services based architecture of ArcGIS, gives users great reach and flexibility.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

And the Continuing Evolution of Cloud Computing<\/h2>\r\nThe combined forces of the Internet and cloud computing are dramatically changing how software companies deliver their functionality, and this is clearly impacting\u2014some would say transforming\u2014how end users do their work.\r\n\r\nToday, web connectivity coupled with elastic cloud computing is giving users far greater reach and more flexibility in almost every field. The benefits are compelling: users can easily and inexpensively access an immense wealth of geographic information on almost any subject and leverage cloud computing resources to perform analysis and mapping. They can also easily share their data and combine it with other shared data in lightweight apps, fostering community and collaboration."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":217452,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"These forces are revolutionizing geospatial software and delivering many benefits to our users\u2014and my sense is that this transformation is just beginning.\r\n

Geospatial Capabilities on the Web: Esri\u2019s Strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nOver the past decade, Esri has transformed the fundamental architecture of ArcGIS to be entirely web services based. We refer to this architecture as a Web GIS platform.\r\n\r\nThis architecture has been engineered to work well in cloud environments, in on-premises infrastructure, and in hybrid networks. Web GIS manages all aspects of geospatial information\u2014such as maps and data\u2014but also analytical models, applications, workflows, and even data security and access. Users have the ability to easily share and integrate nearly any type of distributed georeferenced data. Web GIS is growing rapidly as well and is significantly easier to use, deploy, and integrate across the enterprise than traditional systems.\r\n\r\nThis pattern was deployed at scale with the creation of a massive geospatial cloud platform known as ArcGIS Online. The software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based platform provides hundreds of analytic and visualization capabilities delivered in easy-to-use apps. There are also tens of thousands of ready-to-use datasets and maps that users can immediately employ in their applications. This platform is opening up many new markets and enabling existing GIS users to expand their impact across their organizations.\r\n\r\nThe ease of use and affordability of this platform are attracting many new users, from fieldworkers and executives to software developers and data scientists. The open and scalable nature of this platform is also integrating the whole world of data science, artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a>, and machine learning.\r\n

Apps Make It Easy and Fun<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nUsing this web pattern is easy, productive, and fun thanks to a whole suite of out-of-the-box apps that run anywhere. These apps just work, supporting things like smart mapping, field data collection, location tracking and routing, spatial analytics<\/a>, situational awareness, and map-based storytelling.\r\n\r\nApps are increasingly how people explore and understand maps and information. They deliver an immersive and \u201csticky\u201d experience that people find joy in using.\r\n

Introducing Esri\u2019s Geospatial Cloud<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nIn 2019, we are introducing the term Esri Geospatial Cloud<\/em> to describe the larger set of technology and products offered by Esri. This encompasses all our software and SaaS offerings, including the following:\r\n