ArcGIS Enterprise Terminology

Question

As a refresher, and for any novices, what's the difference between these Enterprise-related terms?

* ArcGIS Enterprise
* ArcGIS Portal
* ArcSDE
* Enterprise Geodatabase (eGDB)
* The database: Oracle/SQL Server/Postgres/DB2* A company will have databases with names like MYPROD, MYDEV, etc. So, someone might say, "Can you do task abc to MYTABLE in MYPROD?"

* ArcGIS Server (AGS)
* ArcGIS Online (AGOL)

Related: ArcGIS Enterprise: The portal is a content management system…

TimWestern · Accepted Answer

* ArcGIS Enterprise* The full on-premises GIS platform
* It includes Portal + Srever + Data STores + Webadaptor (Some documentation i read suggests the web adaptor might be optional?
* Self Hosted instance of ArcGIS Online in effect (however, versions likely are behind what is in AGOL

* ArcGIS Portal* The front-end content & identity system
* Helps manage Users, Groups, Sharing, Items (maps, apps, layers)
* This is where people log in and browse content
* It's essentially a Web Based Content Management System (CMS), that has searchable index of content

* ArcSDE* Legacy technology concept (ie been around a long time)
* Originally middleware to connect between ArcGIS to data services 
* An adaptor between GIS Applications and the Relational Database Management System
* Also helps associate Spatial Data as a native type within those databases
* I haven't head this acronym used a lot lately, from what I understand it is a core part of ArcGIS Server and no longer a separate install
* Still used as a short hand for enterprise geodatabase connetions

* Enterprise Geodatabase* ArcGIS-enabled database
* Adds GIS Behavior (versioning, topology, etc) on top of a DB
* Stored inside of a Datastore/Service like SQL Server / Oracle / PostgreSQL... etc.
* Is essentially a database plus ArcGIS rules and structure

* ArcGIS Server (AGS)* The engine that runs GIS Services
* Publishes maps, feature services, geoprocessing servics
* Does the actual work (queries, rendering, analysis)
* You might think of this like the 'compute/service execution' tier in an architecture

* ArcGIS Online* ESRI's cloud-hosted version of portal with its own' cloud based server
* Same concept as Portal, but Software as a Service (Saas)
* Requires no infrastructure to manage (at least on premise)
* Basically ArcGIS Enterprise but hosted and maintained by ESRI

* database question* Those are the actual data storage systems on a system
* Could be SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB2 etc.

* Stores tables, indexes, transactions
* Not GIS aware by itself
* The underlying engine for storing and retrieving data (there are exceptions for file geo databases I believe)

It's been my experience that most Arc GIS Users, may not be aware of the database names or tables, but will know which permission SDE Connection they are under, which environment, and what feature layer names they are found under in Enterprise/Pro/Online.

hope that helps

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