Does ArcGIS Online for Organizations = ArcGIS Desktop delivered through Saas?

Question

Is ArcGIS Online for Organizations a metered, Software As A Service (SaaS) deployment of ArcGIS Desktop in the Cloud? Or is it a subscription based managed map services offering? If advanced workloads can't be sent to ArcGIS Online for Organizations, or if it's not ArcGIS Desktop being served virtually through the Cloud, I'm wondering what it's Unique Value Proposition is to customers.

A short while ago, I posted the following Idea @ ideas.arcgis.com. This was before I started hearing more about ArcGIS Online for Organizations / Enterprises. Somewhere it was described as "GIS Without the Box." Virtual ArcGIS Desktop subscriptions might fit that description. But I'm not sure ArcGIS Online for Organizations does. Are there any good podcasts or video presentations that clarify what ArcGIS Online for Organizations/Enterprises offers vs. plain old ArcGIS Online (which users evidently find limiting)?

I've also heard the term "GIS As A Service." Not quite sure of the scope or what that really means. GIS As A Service (GaaS?), to me, would be the ability to send large geospatial workloads to the cloud on a pay-as-you-go basis. Or metered, remote access to ArcGIS Desktop (or ArcGIS for Desktop at the 10.1 release).

Is ArcGIS Online for Organizations *really* Software As A Service if ArcGIS Desktop is not in the mix? Perhaps it's a new kind of software being offered as a service; but not the type of traditional geospatial software GIS Analysts are familiar with, right?

Offer ArcGIS Desktop through the Software As A Service (SaaS) Cloud model for both deployment and licensing
http://ideas.arcgis.com/ideaView?id=08730000000bx0DAAQ

danan · Answer

Hi, thanks for your questions.  ArcGIS Online is not a SaaS version of desktop, it provides organizations with a cloud-based, collaborative content management system for maps, apps, data, and other geographic information.  It's about making the organizations GIS, maps and data available to everyone.  With it you can make and use the organizations maps and data in your work.  Think of it as empowering everyone to participate.

One good place to start with what it can do for an organization is with the detailed help system and videos.  Your organization can also participate in the beta program to see first hand what it can do.  Start here with the help system:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisonline/help/010q/010q0000007m000000.htm

The ArcGIS Online blog is also full of good info:
http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/
-Paul-

Will have to check out the videos and learn more about how this fits into the Esri ecosystem. Thanks for explaining its current incarnation: as a collaboration tool, a publishing tool (with basic editing capabilities) and a medium for getting geospatial data, maps, and apps into the hands of non-GIS professionals. That still squares with what I've heard about Desktop's place--where you go for heavy-duty authoring, analysis, etc.

Could ArcGIS Online evolve into a SaaS offering with Desktop feature parity? Or would current lack of bandwidth make this problematic? Those are rhetorical questions as this would be future dev. It would be interesting to apply the Subscription model to a Desktop-Like-Object in the Cloud. No Big Licensing Costs Up Front would break down barriers to heavy-duty analysis work, etc. I've been thinking a lot about metered licensing that would mirror and complement metered infrastructure. But maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way. And now I'll get off my virtual soap box. 🙂

PaulRoss · Answer

Hi, thanks for your questions.  ArcGIS Online is not a SaaS version of desktop, it provides organizations with a cloud-based, collaborative content management system for maps, apps, data, and other geographic information.  It's about making the organizations GIS, maps and data available to everyone.  With it you can make and use the organizations maps and data in your work.  Think of it as empowering everyone to participate.

One good place to start with what it can do for an organization is with the detailed help system and videos.  Your organization can also participate in the beta program to see first hand what it can do.  Start here with the help system:
http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisonline/help/010q/010q0000007m000000.htm

The ArcGIS Online blog is also full of good info:
http://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/

If you want to participate in the beta program just drop the beta team an email at betafeedback@esri.com.

-Paul-