ESRI

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ESRI
Type	Private
Founded	Redlands, California (1969)
Headquarters	Redlands, California, U.S. 34°3′25.35″N, 117°11′44.44″W
Key people	Jack Dangermond, Founder/President
Industry	Software Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Products	ArcGIS, ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcInfo, ArcGIS Server, ArcIMS, ArcSDE,
Revenue	More than $610 million per year
Employees	4,000+ (2007 statistics) [1]
Website	www.esri.com

For the Irish research group, see Economic and Social Research Institute.

ESRI (pronounced /ĕz-rē/ or pronounced /ē-s-r-ī/) is a high-tech software development and services company providing professional, market-leading Geographic Information System (GIS) software and geodatabase management applications, along with extensive consulting and support for these products. The worldwide headquarters of ESRI are anchored in a multicampus environment in Redlands, California.

Since founded as Environmental Systems Research Institute in 1969 as a land-use consulting firm, ESRI has grown to its current position as a dominant industry leader. Through decades of innovation in geospatial technologies, ESRI products (particularly ArcGIS Desktop) have become the de facto standard in GIS, and with one-third of the global market share,^[2] are used by nearly 80% of GIS users worldwide from all professions.^[3] ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis.^[4]

With 10 regional offices in the U.S., a network of 80 international distributors with more than a million users in 200 countries, ESRI commands a global presence. ESRI is made up of 2,500 employees in the U.S. alone, and is still privately-held by the founders. In 2006, year revenues were more than $660 million.^[5]

ESRI hosts an annual International User's Conference, which was first held on the Redlands campus in 1981 with 16 attendees. More recently, the User's Conference has been held in San Diego for the past 10 years. An estimated 14,500 worldwide users attended in 2007.^[6]

Contents 1 Ownership 2 Pronunciation of company name 3 Products 3.1 Desktop GIS 3.2 Server GIS 3.3 Mobile GIS 3.4 Developer GIS 3.5 Hosted GIS (ArcWeb Services) 4 Programs 4.1 ESRI Conservation Program 5 Federal Investigation 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Ownership

Main article: Jack Dangermond

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).^[7]

[edit] Products

Main article: ArcGIS

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 users to author, analyze, map, manage, share, and publish geographic information. ArcGIS Desktop ships in three levels of licensing: ArcView, ArcEditor and ArcInfo. ArcView provides a robust set of GIS capabilities suitable for many GIS applications. ArcEditor, at added cost, 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.

ArcGIS Explorer, 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, ARC/INFO, was 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, DB2, Informix and Microsoft SQL Server databases. It supports its native SDE binary data format, Oracle Spatial, and ST_geometry. 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, ArcGIS 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), hosted geographic databases, ArcGIS mobile.

ArcGIS mobile ADF is an API to develop applications on windows mobile platform of different flavors (pocketpc, smartphone)

[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] 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.

[edit] Federal Investigation

On June 28, 2006, an ESRI official said that the company had received a federal subpoena as part the ongoing investigation into the ties between Jerry Lewis and Copeland Lowery. "We have no concerns," ESRI spokesman Don Berry said. "We retain a lobbyist and it is not an issue for us." On September 5, 2006, the Associated Press reported that federal investigators were looking into a donation of 41 acres of land to the city of Redlands by the owners of ESRI in 2001, land adjacent to the home of Lewis.

Between 2001 and 2006, Lewis earmarked more than $90 million for ESRI projects that included defense intelligence systems such as database mapping to assist in rebuilding Iraq. Other projects included using GIS methodologies to assess the fire danger of the San Bernardino Mountains, to help move troops in the Iraq war, and to assist in reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. From 1998-2003, the company also received another $60 million in defense contracts outside of those earmarks.

ESRI has paid Lowery's firm $320,000 since 1998. Jack and Laura Dangermond have consistently been among the top individual contributors to Lewis' campaign fund, giving a combined $13,900 between 2000 and 2005. The couple has donated a combined $32,900 to the campaign fund and Lewis' PAC since the 2000 election cycle. ^[8]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ESRI's Corporate home page
• ESRI's Developer Network
• ESRI's Conservation Program
• The Society for Conservation GIS
• ESRI Canada's home page
• The UK Office's home page
• The home page of ESRI Germany GmbH (ESRI's distributor for Germany and Switzerland)
• ESRI Australia's home page
• ESRI North East Africa (ESRINEA) home page
• Introductory GIS Information
• ESRI Press, a resource for texts on GIS and GIS-related topics