What is the future for geodata services?

[Anonymous User]

We wish to be able to replicate enterprise geodatabase feature classes and allow 2-way editing of the replicated feature classes. Looking at the possible ways to do this, it appears that there are 3 options:

1. Geodatabase replication.
   
   This method has been around for a long time and is well-tested and understood. However, the replication occurs at the geodatabase level and requires opening up the firewall in one environment to allow geodatabase connection from the other environment.
2. Geodatabase replication using a geodata service.
   
   This works as well as geodatabase replication, and has the additional advantage that no additional ports need to be opened in the firewall, as synchronization happens through the REST endpoint of the geodatabase service. However, the ArcGIS Pro documentation refers to geodata services as "legacy" and there is little support for them in ArcGIS Pro.
3. 2-way editing using distributed collaboration.
   
   It doesn't appear that 2-way editing using distributed collaboration supports the scenario in which both copies are geodatabase feature classes.

So, my questions are:

1. Are geodata services truly "legacy", in that they will be retired at some point in the future?
2. How does one implement replication between enterprise geodatabase feature classes at the service level (i.e., without having to open up the firewall to perform synchronization at the database level)?

[ABishop]

Hello Jonathan,

I noticed that 34 people have viewed your post and haven't replied to it.  I found your questions intriguing and thought I would take a stab at it.

Without knowing details of your GIS infrastructure, I would venture to say that you are using the traditional versioned geodatabase and your services are hosted from an ArcGIS Server?  

[Anonymous User]

Hi Amanda.

Yes, the geodatabases use traditional versioning. The feature services are published to ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9.1 using ArcGIS Pro 2.9. In addition, I've published a geodata service to one of the ArcGIS Server instances using ArcMap 10.8.1.

[ABishop]

OK.  I would do some research on ArcGIS Enterprise Portal.  This will give you the ability to set up branch versioning and also publish feature services in your portal to allow for editing of a feature service.  The reconciliation process happens at the feature service level with permissions that you set on the feature service when published.  The nice thing about Enterprise Portal is that you don't have as much maintenance on the geodatabase side (no needed compression, etc.) because it is all done on the feature service by the end user.

For your question about geodata services being legacy... it not so much that the concept is legacy, but the workflow is evolving with the new technology.  

Check it out here:  https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/what-is-portal-for-arcgis-.htm 

[Anonymous User · Accepted solution]

After discussing with Esri Canada staff, it sounds like geodata services will be supported for the foreseeable future, and that the ability to publish them will be added in a future release of ArcGIS Pro. So, it looks like this is the best way to synchronize geodatabase feature classes without having to open a firewall port to allow database access.

[anonymous_geographer]

Thanks for sharing! Our agency uses scenarios #1 and #2 extensively. If it is helpful to you, I'm hoping Esri soon provides a bit more support for geodata services within Pro so that traditional workflows can continue with ease (for a least a while longer). After I submitted this to Esri, their support confirmed it as a bug. There is hope for even more replication support in Pro!