Why go from ArcGIS Online to Enterprise?

[felixcasa]

I am a system administrator, a new member of the IT staff here, a total GIS n00bie. I just started a couple months ago here and it seems like this company has already made up their minds about moving from ArcGIS Online to Enterprise.

I don't think the GIS staff understands how much of an undertaking this is for the IT staff. Looks like we will need a new VM Host with lots of CPU, RAM, and storage. If we need it to be highly available, we will need double the amount of hardware. We will have to deal with networking, backups, firewalls, security, etc. Also we will need to do a ton of configuration and management. You don't have to deal with any of that on ArcGIS Online. Most of the IT industry is transitioning away from on-premises hosted services to cloud-hosted services. This feels like a step backwards.

I want to ask our GIS staff "Why do you need Enterprise?" but I don't want to come off as a stick in the mud.

Here are some of the benefits of Enterprise, as far as I understand:

• Unlimited viewer licenses

• Lowered ESRI 'service credit' costs

• ??????

[Katie_Clark]

The primary reason my organization moved to using Enterprise (though we still use ArcGIS Online as well) was related to storage costs of hundreds of massive datasets that we maintain. You are absolutely correct though, it is a lot more work as far as the IT side of things is concerned!

[jcarlson]

Forget "so much of the IT industry". This is going to depend on your organization's specific needs.

For example, we're a small organization with relatively few users, but we need some of the advanced capabilities of an Enterprise Geodatabase. We need a multi-user Parcel Fabric, something that as of right now, requires Enterprise. We have a few layers that need "fancy" symbology through a Map Image layer. The fact that AGOL can't provide those capabilities matters more than any of its other benefits. But it might not be the case for you!

You should absolutely ask why your GIS users need/want to switch. And if there isn't a clear answer, it's appropriate to initiate a discussion on the matter. In deciding between AGOL and Enterprise, you really need a thorough inventory of your organization's datasets, current and planned use cases, etc. Understanding what your users require will dictate the choice you make, because the capabilities of the two systems are not interchangeable.