Follow
Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
The release of Esri CityEngine 2015 allows GIS professionals, architects, planners, and urban designers to create 3D city models faster and share them easily via ArcGIS Online. These new features open the use of 3D models for every day, real-world simulation, emergency response, urban planning, and entertainment scenarios. "CityEngine 2015 is faster, sports higher-quality visuals, and introduces an innovative and unique 3D design experience. The latter is possible with Procedural Handles, a novel user interface for the intuitive editing of 3D models. We worked very hard on this and are excited to release it," said Pascal Mueller, director of the Esri R&D Center, Zurich AG.
“CityEngine provides decision makers with the opportunity to do more advanced planning than when they are using a typical CAD or spreadsheet system”Antje Kunze, CEO, SmarterBetterCities
Companies like Esri partner SmarterBetterCities use CityEngine to help clients view and investigate building development proposals in a true 3D environment.
"CityEngine provides decision makers with the opportunity to do more advanced planning than when they are using a typical CAD or spreadsheet system," said Antje Kunze, CEO, SmarterBetterCities. "We are now able to help our clients better visualize rules and regulations and perform analytics that no one has been able to address in the past."
Advancements from user requests—including a modern editor for managing layers, real-time shadows based on daytime and location, faster data export, and improved publishing workflows—have been implemented. continued…
first published week of: 05/11/2015
Internet of Things Innovation Benefits Enterprise Organizations across Industries and Verticals
The Internet of Things (IoT) inspires new ways of thinking about how we work with and share information. And now enterprises are getting ready to intelligently consume IoT’s large data streams in real time. To help with this, Esri Inc. is working with Microsoft Corporation to integrate location services and spatial analytics to the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite. “Location is fundamental to realizing value in being connected,” said Chris Cappelli, Global Business Development, Esri. “There can be no IoT without understanding the physical and spatial context of the machines it consists of. The common language of geography unlocks the value in IoT data streams.”
“The Azure IoT Suite enables customers to rapidly deploy pre-configured solutions that scale to millions of devices and help them realize business value from IoT”Sam George, partner director of Azure Internet of Things, Microsoft
The Esri and Microsoft collaboration will rapidly enable IoT scenarios by offering customers and partners a set of highly capable platform services as ready-to-use, preconfigured solutions. This forthcoming integrated offering is the next step in Microsoft’s and Esri’s long-standing alliance to spatially enable the enterprise.
Smart city concepts and innovations in the automotive industry are examples of how data from many sources increases understanding. Governments and businesses use that data to improve safety features, reduce air pollution, and mitigate traffic congestion.
“The Azure IoT Suite enables customers to rapidly deploy pre-configured solutions that scale to millions of devices and help them realize business value from IoT,” said Sam George, partner director of Azure Internet of Things, Microsoft. “Our collaboration with Esri will extend the Azure IoT Suite to include rich location and geo-spatial services, which are critical in the world of IoT.”
first published week of: 11/09/2015
Esri presented 187 organizations worldwide with Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Awards at the Esri User Conference (Esri UC) in San Diego, California. The SAG Awards highlight users that have shown vision, leadership, hard work, and innovation in their use of Esri's geographic information system (GIS) technology. Nominations for the SAG Award are submitted from thousands of organizations worldwide then personally reviewed and selected by Esri president, Jack Dangermond.
"The people and organizations honored today demonstrate the true power that geospatial technology holds when put in the hands of innovators like themselves," Dangermond said. "At Esri, we are humbled and inspired by the passion of our users for applying geography to solve problems and make the world a better place."
Award recipients represent organizations that span industries including environmental management, education, government, health and human services, natural resources, telecommunications, transportation, and utilities, as well as nonprofit agencies.
Winners are listed here.
first published week of: 07/27/2015
and host the new Census Business Builder application, introduced at the America's Small Business Development Centers annual conference in San Francisco on September 9.
The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) changed its website to reflect the new status. Esri Managed Cloud Services is the first system to transition from CSP Supplied Package to Agency FedRAMP Authorization. For other federal agencies, the designation signifies that the Esri program has met each agency's own security requirements.
Esri Managed Cloud Services is tailored specifically for geographic information system (GIS) technology to offer a cloud environment that is compliant at the FedRAMP moderate level, meaning it satisfies the stringent security requirements that federal agencies must meet before operating in a cloud computing environment.
Esri Managed Cloud Services provides ready-to-use instances of ArcGIS, Esri's industry-leading GIS platform, in the cloud. Customers can adapt it to suit their needs, either as an alternative within their own infrastructure or in conjunction with their own servers. The scalable, secure environment is supported by experienced GIS professionals to ensure that GIS data and services are available whenever needed.
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. Being FedRAMP compliant and agency authorized means a cloud computing system has established and documented a highly secure environment that has withstood comprehensive, rigorous review prior to federal agencies being authorized to engage the system.
The Esri Managed Cloud Services system supports federal agencies seeking to comply with the White House Cloud Computing Strategy. Adopted in 2011 to save money, the Cloud First policy requires federal agencies to evaluate safe, secure cloud computing options before making any new investments.
GIS users are moving to the cloud in large part to take advantage of the flexibility and potential cost savings it provides. Using Esri Managed Cloud Services helps users reduce risk, speed deployment, improve performance, and reduce operational costs in a secure environment.
Because Esri Managed Cloud Services was designed from the ground up to meet the needs of federal customers, it can also meet the robust security demands of users from other sectors such as law enforcement, health care, and retail.
For more information about the Census Business Builder application, visit http://www.census.gov/data/data-tools/cbb.html.
To learn more about FedRAMP, visit https://www.fedramp.gov/about-us/about/.
For a complete description of the Esri Managed Cloud Services FedRAMP-compliant system, visit http://esriurl.com/emcsFedRAMP.
first published week of: 10/05/2015
Do you find yourself limited with the monitor real estate when scrolling through your spreadsheet data and interacting with maps? Are you trying to overlay your map in Excel with your organization’s GIS data in different coordinate systems? Do you have a cluttered data visualization when you map datasets from multiple tables?
The 3.0 version answers all these questions and makes it even easier to map your Excel data and work with maps in many new ways. For example, you can add multiple maps to your spreadsheet and compare them side by side, change the coordinate system for your maps to match with your organization’s preferred projection system, float the maps outside the Excel window and to other monitors, and much more. To download Esri Maps for Office and learn more, visit http://doc.arcgis.com/en/maps-for-office/.
With Esri Maps for Office 3.0, you can: continued…
first published week of: 04/13/2015
Esri is pleased to announce the latest release of Esri Maps for Salesforce. This release includes some important improvements based on feedback we’ve received as well as some bug fixes.
First, you can now include map center and level parameters in the URL of a map so that you can open an existing map centered at a specific location and zoom level. The URL can be associated with any button and added to any page layout. By using variables for the xy values, you can open the map and center on the location of any record (e.g. Account record).
Second, we’ve enhanced security for map objects that honors Salesforce Sharing Settings. Now Salesforce Admins have more control of who has access to maps. The sharing button then allows a map author to choose who can see and edit a map. continued…
first published week of: 07/06/2015