ArcGIS Enterprise specialist and founder of geoworx. Specialisms in ArcGIS Health, Security, Performance, Maintenance and Upgrades. Consultant. Owner/Operator of a boutique B&B offering luxury accommodation in Ohakune
Bridging the Gap: My reservist career in the Royal Engineers was short. I had applied to become a regular and was encouraged to get an education and come back as an officer. Life didn't allow that. In my short service, I spent most of my time building the Medium Girder Bridge (MGB), at competition speed. I competed for my regiment in the 1993 Military Engineering Games in Hamlin Germany against other NATO teams. I was reflecting on this today after a client recently told me that geoworx "bridges the gap" between their IT and GIS teams. At the highest level, that's what geoworx does. ArcGIS Enterprise is built from many separate components, just like the panels and decking components of an MGB. If the pieces of an MGB don't sit just right, then there's a danger the bridge will collapse. Unfortunately, I've seen ArcGIS Enterprise do the same. Following the Esri documentation will get you started, there is no question of that. But for a truly exceptional build, you need to read between the many pages of documentation and make a considerable number of choices. Experience and specialism counts. You can layer over that IT and security best practices, that can only be gained from working across many different environments and understanding requirements and constraints. The MGB can be built as a single layer bridge to fill small gaps at speed. But if you want to put bigger vehicles over it or span larger gaps, then it could collapse unless you double-tier it. The same can be true for ArcGIS Enterprise if you don't layer IT and security goodness upon it. I've worked on every version of ArcGIS Server and Enterprise since it was released. I did some bad stuff in the early days, as we all do, from that I've learnt and specialised. I've listened to infrastructure and networking architects, and security specialists. I've learnt and applied those lessons, and geoworx now takes a holistic approach to designing, building and maintaining ArcGIS Enterprise for its portfolio of clients. geoworx engineers multiple levels of strength into every build. The intention is to build once and build it exceptionally. You should be able to make that one bridge longer, or wider, without rebuilding it. The fundamental base and choices are designed to scale for years to come. We build so that your ArcGIS Enterprise is 'System Ready'. We refuse to build today, knowing that you'll need to rebuild in five years. While in the Royal Engineers I also learnt the skill of 'Improvised Bridging'. It uses a different philosophy, of 'needs must'. Imagine coming upon a gap, and you haven't got access to an MGB. Instead, you find some lamp posts, tree trunks, telegraph poles, and some rough timber to build a rudimentary deck. In NZ we call this building with "number 8 wire". How's your bridge looking? Improvised or long lasting? Read more: https://lnkd.in/ddx4WaBy
