ESRI
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| ESRI | |
 |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | Redlands, California (1969) |
| Headquarters | Redlands, California, USA |
| Key people | Jack Dangermond, Founder/President |
| Industry | Software Geographic Information Systems (GIS) |
| Products | ArcGIS ArcView ArcIMS ArcInfo ArcGIS Server ArcWeb Services ArcSDE |
| Revenue | More than $610 million per year |
| Employees | 3,100 (2006 statistics)[1] |
| Website | www.esri.com |
- For the Irish research group, see Economic and Social Research Institute.
ESRI was founded as Environmental Systems Research Institute in 1969 as a privately held consulting firm that specialized in land use analysis projects. The worldwide headquarters of ESRI are anchored in a multicampus environment in Redlands, California.
ESRI's business involves the development and support of GIS software, with customers including small businesses, large corporations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and governments at all levels.
ESRI has offices throughout the United States; a business partner program with more than 2,000 developers, consultants, resellers, and data providers [1]; and a network of more than 80 international distributors with more than a million users [1] in more than 200 countries.
ESRI hosts an annual International User's Conference, which has been held in San Diego for the past 10 years. An estimated 12,000 worldwide users attended in 2006.[2]
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[edit] Ownership
Jack and Laura Dangermond founded ESRI in 1969. Jack Dangermond is the current president of ESRI.
[edit] Pronunciation of company name
According to the company, ESRI is not pronounced as a word (es-ri) but as distinct letters (ee, ess, aar, I) similar to IBM, SAP and other software companies with an acronym based name. It is thought within the GIS circles, and even joked that 'old' users prefer E-S-R-I, while novice users use the 'ez-ree' pronunciation. Employees of ESRI still pronounce the name in both fashions (typically depending on the audience).[3]
[edit] Products
ESRI uses the name ArcGIS to refer to its suite of GIS software products, which operate on desktop, server, and mobile platforms. ArcGIS also includes developer products and web services.
[edit] Desktop GIS
ESRI's current desktop GIS suite is version 9.2, which shipped in final release form in November, 2006. ArcGIS Desktop software products allow you to author, analyze, map, manage, share, and publish geographic information. ArcGIS Desktop comes in three levels of licensing: ArcView, ArcEditor and ArcInfo. ArcView provides a robust set of GIS capabilities suitable for many GIS applications. At added cost, ArcEditor expands the desktop capabilities to allow more extensive data editing and manipulation, including server geodatabase editing. ArcInfo is at the high end and provides full, advanced analysis and data management capabilities, including geostatistical and topological analysis tools. At all levels of licensing, ArcMap, ArcCatalog and ArcToolbox are the names of the applications comprising the desktop package.
ArcReader and ArcExplorer are basic freeware applications for viewing GIS data.
ArcGIS Desktop Extensions are available, including Spatial Analyst which allows raster analysis, and 3D Analyst which allows terrain mapping and analysis. Other more specialized extensions are available from ESRI and third parties for specific GIS needs.
ESRI's original product was ARC/INFO, a command line GIS product available initially on minicomputers, then on UNIX workstations. In 1992, a GUI GIS, ArcView GIS, was introduced. Over time, both of those products were offered in Windows versions and ArcView was offered as a Macintosh product. The names ArcView and ArcInfo are now used to name different levels of licensing in ArcGIS Desktop, and less often refer to these original software products. The Windows version of ArcGIS is now the only ArcGIS Desktop platform that is undergoing new development for future product releases.
[edit] Server GIS
Server GIS products allow GIS functionality and data to be deployed from a central environment. ArcIMS (Internet Mapping Server) provides browser based access to GIS. ArcSDE (Spatial Database Engine) is used as an RDBMS connector for other ESRI software to store and retrieve GIS data within a commercially available RDBMS. Currently ArcSDE can be used with Oracle Spatial, DB2, Informix and Microsoft SQL Server databases. ArcGIS Server is an internet application service, used to extend the functionality of ArcGIS Desktop software to a browser based environment. ArcGIS Server is available on Solaris and Linux as well as Windows and will eventually phase out ArcIMS. Other server based products include GIS Portal Toolkit, ESRI Image Server and Tracking Server as well as several others.
[edit] Mobile GIS
Mobile GIS conflates GIS, GPS, Location-based services, handheld computing, and the growing availability of geographic data. ArcGIS technology can be deployed on a range of mobile systems from lightweight devices to PDAs, laptops, and Tablet PCs. Products: ArcPad, Mobile ArcGIS Desktop Systems, ArcGIS Server (Server-oriented APIs), ArcWeb Services (Web-oriented APIs) and hosted geographic databases.
[edit] Developer GIS
Developer GIS products enable building custom desktop or server GIS applications or embed GIS functionality in existing applications. These focused solutions can then be easily deployed throughout an organization. Products: ESRI Developer Network or EDN, ArcEngine (Desktop-oriented APIs), ArcGIS Server (Server-oriented APIs and a web development ADF which is part of ArcGIS Server), ArcWeb Services (Web-oriented APIs)
[edit] Hosted GIS (ArcWeb Services)
ArcWeb Services give a diverse user community access to geospatial content and capabilities. Central to ArcWeb Services is the geographic data it aggregates, and a variety of geographic services such as map display and address geocoding. ArcWeb Public Services are free to developers building non-commercial, non-governmental applications. ArcWeb Commercial Services provides fee-based access to additional capability. Products: ArcWeb Services—Commercial Services , ArcWeb Services—Public Services, and Web-oriented APIs.
[edit] Lightweight viewers
Lightweight GIS data viewers provide a no-cost way to view geographic data. Products: ArcReader, ArcExplorer
[edit] Programs
[edit] ESRI Conservation Program
In 1989 the ESRI Conservation Program was started to help change the way nonprofit organizations carried out their missions of nature conservation and social change. This vision involved providing GIS software, data, and training, as well as helping to coordinate multiorganizational efforts (ie. The Society for Conservation GIS). ESRI continues to support this program because it believes in what conservationists are doing and that their efforts are important to the future of our planet.
