Primary and Secondary Maintenance

mohammedAlsaket

I’ve been working on an old client proposal for license updates, which still operates on version 10.6.1. In the license table provided by the client, they listed the following items:

 

• ArcGIS Desktop Concurrent Use Primary Maintenance – Quantity: 1
• ArcGIS Desktop Concurrent Use Secondary Maintenance – Quantity: 3

I wasn’t entirely sure about the differences between these types, so I did a quick online search and came across some historical materials from a couple of years later, including a LinkedIn post and an Esri Canada paper.

LinkedIn Post

Esri Canada paper

It appears that Esri has made significant changes to their licensing structures over the years. These "Primary" and "Secondary" maintenance levels seem to have been tied to Concurrent Use and Single Use licenses, which Esri has been phasing out. The shift is now towards a Named User licensing structure, aligning with ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Pro.

Given this evolution, it’s possible that these maintenance levels (Primary & Secondary) have been retired? or replaced altogether?.

I couldn't find updated official source from Esri talking more about this, but I’ll continue to dig deeper into this, also any insights or confirmation from others with experience in these older licensing models would be appreciated.

simoxu

when you buy a License for your ArcGIS product, you normally pay for the software license and 12 months maintenance. Say you buy a permanent / perpetual ArcGIS Pro basic license with 12 month maintenance which give you some benefits, for example:

 

 

After 12 months, you can choose to renew maintenance or not,  and your software will continue to work regardless, but you'll lose some benefits listed above.

This applies to most of Esri products.

Do talk to your local Esri Sales, they'll explain it Primary and Secondary maintenance, it's just different level of support I suppose, not sure they are still sold separately -  Esri license can be complicated  😛