Traditionally, organizations have managed and maintained computer systems using an on-site hosting model.  Cloud computing allows for on-demand, commonly off-site, technology capabilities that are delivered as a service over the Web. With the advent of cloud computing, there are several alternative software deployment methods available that can significantly reduce an organization’s resources of time, money, and IT support. ESRI recognizes the benefits of cloud computing, when used appropriately, for increased cost optimization and to deliver greater customer satisfaction. However, many users are not quite ready to jump into public cloud computing, or are restricted from doing so.  In these situations, these deployment tiers are replicated within a private cloud environment, maintained within the parameters of the host organization, but taking advantage of cloud practices, such as virtualization and self-service Web administration, within an on-site enterprise computing environment.

Although cloud computing may not be suitable for all solutions, ESRI is working on products to be more cloud compatible. ArcGIS Server is being architected in such a way that services run efficiently and effectively, taking full advantage of the benefits offered by the Cloud on Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2).  For example, ArcGIS Server instances will be able to be added and removed dynamically as expected on EC2 without disruption of service.  Administration will be designed for cloud and virtualization environments, consistent with cloud-ready systems.  We will provide additional details as we finalize the ArcGIS 9.4 release.

In the meantime, ESRI is investing in the cloud computing environment with other solutions, as well.  Business Analyst Online and the ArcGIS Server Geoportal Extension are both examples of Software as a Service (SaaS), as on-demand end-user applications.  In addition, ArcGIS Online Sharing adds the ability for our customers to share their data as part of a growing online community.  For developers interested in application platforms as a service, ESRI offers the ArcGIS Online Sharing REST API and the ArcGIS Web mapping APIs.  Finally, to leverage both on-premise software and hosted services (Software + Services), ESRI customers can take advantage of using their ESRI software with ESRI hosted services through the ArcGIS Online Resource Center maps, GIS services, Web applications and Web Mapping APIs.