I still don’t know what ArcGIS Online is

Heres JohnnyHeres Johnny

Esri Marketing is knocking on my email inbox

OK, so lets try and figure out what ArcGIS Online is. I sure as heck can’t make sense of what Esri marketing is telling me, it’s all contradictory marketing nonsense. So here are my theories.

Geography Network 2.0

Well it is possibly the spiritual offspring because we couldn’t figure out what that was for either. Plus while Esri hosts a lot of data for you, it sill is a reference point for that slow ass ArcGIS Server you have running on that ancient Dell PowerEdge server on that DSL line your IT department hasn’t figured out still exists.

ArcGIS Server NG

ArcGIS Server is a huge drain on Esri. The technical support effort they put into supporting people who have no right trying to install server software must be enormous. Plus 9.3, 10.1, SP1, SP2, SP3, SP4, SP5, etc are all confusing and who knows if you have the right version. By migrating all you to a hosted solution, they can take away your right to install ArcGIS Server incorrectly and make sure you continue to pay maintenance.

Google My Maps for ArcGIS

People use Google Maps to share information freely. Why shouldn’t they use ArcGIS for Online instead? Quick, get that to the marketing team!

ArcGIS for Cloud

Oh my yes. The cloud is like the information superhighway meets the world wide web. In the middle, ArcGIS Online.

ArcGIS.com

I thought this was what we were calling ArcGIS Online. I’m totally confused.

ArcGIS for Content Management

Wait, I already debunked that.

Here is my fear for Esri. They are forcing everything new through ArcGIS Online and it ends up screwing up some of the more innovative products their teams are creating. At this point, do you really think Esri Maps for Microsoft Office has any hope given it requires ArcGIS Online?

Update: Sean McGinnis and All Points Blog have similar thoughts.


Tags
Thoughts

Date
July 19, 2012