Day 1 At The ESRI Business Partner Conference 2009 Including Some Information On ArcGIS 9.4

Posted by Jithen (J) Singh in Events on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 | 4 comments

The ESRI Business Partner Conference 2009 kicked off yesterday in a very sunny Palm Springs. While everyone made their way into the main plenary area I looked around and noticed that there wasn’t many people there. I don’t know if this is just me but numbers looked down compared to last year.

The main plenary session was quite a WOW. I was very impressed with a number of the announcements and demonstrations. In fact I came out energised!

There was a new stage layout for this year. Angled screens which switched from presentations to videos. This years plenary was broken up into a number of different topics. Here are my notes from each topic.

Connect

Showed a number of examples from customers worldwide. These were shown as screenshots and broken into the relevant industry. Explorer Graphics Ltd was mentioned twice in the awards list for being an outstanding Business Partner. EGL was best Business Partner in New Zealand as well as best Business Partner in California with their sister company North South GIS. Well done guys!

Patterns

Patterns was an interesting topic and something new. Talk was around ArcGIS and templates and how ESRI is working to make ArcGIS templates available to users. A pattern for displaying and using ArcGIS. The example used was the water utility templates which provides everything from asset management through to an operations dashboard through to mobile.

Templates include the application, documentation, maps and the gdb. To go with this, you get the symbology as well. It’s a get template to get everyone started with what they are wanting to do in a particular area. These templates are going to be made available over time and will be available for download from the ESRI Resource Centre.

Align

Align covered a number of areas of the Business Partner program. There are a number of changes to the Business Partner program including a new director. Business Partners will start to see these changes over time.

Evolve

Evolve talked about the upcoming release. ArcGIS 9.3.1. ArccGIS 9.3.1 will bring new data sharing, an improved server, new webmap API’s, an explanded ArcGIS Online, Microsoft integration, and ArcGIS Explorer 900!

So lets touch on each of these topics.

Data sharing will allow you to share you work using layer packages. These layer packages can be exported from ArcGIS and uploaded to ArcGIS Online.

ArcGIS Server has been improved to allow for faster mapping. Some of the other big changes include:

1. NEW ADF licensing. You are now allowed to deploy the ADF how you want without any restrictions.
2. NEW editing capabilities will be available in ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Standard Edition.
3. NEW analytics extensions will be available in ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Advanced Edition.

Faster mapping will provide for faster dynamic maps along with higher quality outputs and optimization tools built into ArcMap to help analyse errors and problems before they are published to ArcGIS Server.

New webmapping API’s add’s Microsoft Silverlight to the list of great API’s provided by ESRI. he ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight is included with ArcGIS Server. The ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight can also be used online in the cloud effectively and this on a subscription basis. The strategy of ArcGIS Server has changed slightly as well and it can be seen to have been broken into two bits. Online mapping and ArcGIS Server. Using the webmapping API’s online will cost around $2k US where as these are included with ArcGIS Server. This will allow customers to take advantage of these powerful API’s but not necessarily need ArcGIS Server.

Layer packages which I touched on a little earlier in this post, will allow you to upload and download data. You can register GIS services, create communities and mashup maps at the click of a button.

Collaboration with Microsoft has been strengthened. Integration with the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight along with Microsoft Virtual Earth.

ArcGIS Explorer 900! Wow a whole new interface and just stunning! More information below.

See

See as the name suggests was all about demonstrations. The new .MSD format for ArcGIS Server was showcased. Taking an operational map and a basemap and mashing this up. ArcGIS Online was demonstrated showcasing the new layer packages along with the mashups which make use of the ArcGIS JavaScript API.

ArcGIS Explorer 900 was showcased. A new presentation mode has been added. This is like using Microsoft PowerPoint except you are within ArcGIS Explorer and you have a fully interactive map within your presentation. Pretty cool stuff.

ArcGIS Explorer 900 beta program is coming very soon!

Grow

Grow was targeted around ESRI’s sales strategy so I won’t mention anything here.

Leverage

Leverage was about making use of resources around you. Microsoft Virtual Earth has been available for use to a number of users as a premium service at ArcGIS 9.3. At ArcGIS 9.3.1 using Microsoft Virtual Earth services will be FREE! For use on ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 these will be on a purchase per block basis.

Also Delorme base maps and Geoeye base maps are being added to ArcGIS Online and will be available soon for use.

Sample viewers have been made available at the ESRI Resource Centres. I encourage users to have a look at these and see how they can use them.

Innovation

Well this was probably the coolest part of the plenary. ArcGIS 9.4 was demonstrated. A few key areas of ArcGIS 9.4 was touched on.

ArcGIS 9.4 will include a number of performance enhancements. There will be new tracking services and images services. There will also be a new editing service. This new light weight editing service will NOT make use of DCOM and will be available for use from the new API’s.

ArcGIS Mobile 9.4 will include a bundle of changes as well. For tablets or desktop machines there will be a new client. A whole new look and feel. There will also be a new addition called the ArcGIS Mobile 9.4 Project Centre. This centre will allow you to manage your devices and projects as well as deployments. Awesome!

ArcMap will sport a similar feel to Microsoft Visual Studio. Dockable windows and improved toolbars. New built in searching capabilities. One search for finding data on your system to finding geoprocessing models. ArcCatalog will be built into ArcMap and made available via a dockable window. Drag and drop will be supported as well. A whole new reporting engine has been written and will be included within ArcMap. Python will be integrated within ArcMap. A new Python window will be available directly from ArcMap which will allow you to run and debug Python scripts directly. Python scripts will also run asynchronously so you can continue working while your script is running in the background.

There is going to be a number of  improvements to editing. Sketch based editing will be introduced for 2D and 3D! Feature based editing has been introduced which will include new selection tools and new attribute information tools. The 3D editor will also include feature based editing and allow you to import 3D sketches.

ArcGIS 9.4 will also include a number of new models.

Another new enhancement that ESRI is working on is the ability to be able to install ArcGIS 9.4 and ArcGIS 9.3.1 on the same machine.

So there are some pretty cool things coming for ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS 9.4. A few things to note. ArcGIS 9.3.1 will be available around mid May and a beta for ArcGIS Explorer 900 will be coming soon. ArcGIS 9.4 is quite a while off. The current focus is on ArcGIS 9.3.1.

Well I hope this provides an insight into some of the cool things tha
t was showcased and demonstrated at the ESRI Business Partner Conference 2009. You can see why I came our energised and excited!

The ESRI Developer Summit 2009 kicks off tomorrow and I’ll be posting updates when I can. In the meanwhile be sure to check out Twitter for updates.