Is ArcGIS Pro technically its own RDMS? Is it necessary to connect it to a DBMS?

Question

Hi there!

This may be an obvious question but I've grown more and more confused. I've been able to make relational joins in ArcGIS Pro, so would that mean it is its own RDMS? Is it necessary to connect to one of the supported DBMS? I currently used DropBox or my desktop to store all of my files. I want to try to figure out the best way to store my data.

JohnFannon · Accepted Answer

ArcGIS Pro itself is not an RDBMS, it is simply a client application. However, it can connect to many data sources including:

* A traditional RDBMS (eg. Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL etc).
* Esri File Geodatabases stored locally or on a file share.
* Various other local storage formats (e.g. shapefile, geopackage etc).

So depending on many factors, including how you intend to use the data and who will access it, you can use any of the above to store and manage your data. For example, if you are the only user and simply need to manage and analyse a bunch of spatial data, then a File Geodatabase is probably sufficient. However, if you want to allow lots of other users to acces and potentially edit that data, or to consume/query from other non-esri applications, then storing the data in an RDBMS would be a more sensible choice.

There are many more reasons for choosing between the different options, but that's the basics.