Much of this came from Dan Oleary and Andrew Turner but it was something I have been wanting to post.  It answers questions we often get from customers when they ask how is the ArcGIS Platform different.  What is the ArcGIS Platform and why should you care?

I often refer to this as the ArcGIS Platform Preamble.  

Modern, mission critical information technology is a composition of many components into a consistent, user oriented whole.

Esri designed the ArcGIS platform as a cohesive architecture of open, interoperable technologies that provide mission ready, deployable, secure and adaptable solutions that solve mission objectives and challenges.  Allowing users to operate within their existing workflows while providing a foundation to extend new applications and custom development at any level of the system architecture through open application programming interfaces as well as open-source code components.

Engineered around the principles of Structured Design and loose coupling, the ArcGIS platform enables users and developers to quickly adapt to emerging situations and changing needs. By enabling user and programmatic interaction through open standards-based interfaces the integrity and flexibility of a complex system is maintained. Our design and engineering approaches used throughout ArcGIS provide end users and developers the freedom to explore new requirements while ensuring reliable and consistent support to ongoing operations.

If you take the time to really understand Structured Design, what it is to be Open (beyond standards) and why cohesiveness matters you will see the art of what the folks in Core have built.  (yes, I'm biased).

-Jeff