Esri Collaborates with Alibaba Cloud, Greatly Extending Location Intelligence

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Esri users now have another compelling option when deploying their ArcGIS technology in the cloud. As of April, Esri and Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing unit of the Alibaba Group, are collaborating to ensure that their technology is interoperable.

This is an important step forward for Esri in driving the expansion of GIS and The Science of Where throughout the world, especially in the Asia Pacific region. Alibaba Cloud is Mainland China’s largest public cloud service provider and the third-largest in the world. The Hangzhou, China-based company currently has 18 data centers worldwide, including ones in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

This collaborative agreement comes as Esri has observed rapid growth in successful ArcGIS implementations in Alibaba Cloud and is a testament to Esri’s commitment to its partner ecosystem.

“We’ve seen our users achieve amazing results already with Esri technology in Alibaba Cloud,” said Esri president Jack Dangermond.

He emphasized both companies’ shared belief that location intelligence in cloud infrastructure is pivotal to addressing users’ needs and solving real-world problems—particularly those that require scalable computing, storage, and networking capabilities.

“This has been made possible as both organizations have engineered interoperable and compatible technology, based on industry standards,” Dangermond added. “The agreement will now bring our engineers together to collaborate on shared initiatives that deliver the next wave of location intelligence innovation in the cloud.”

Esri’s sole authorized distributor in Mainland China, Esri China, has a proven track record in helping customers implement ArcGIS technology in Alibaba Cloud. For example, the Ningxia Land and Resources Bureau has built its own foundational geospatial data platform using ArcGIS Enterprise in Alibaba Cloud. The department has consolidated its electronic map data, imagery, survey results, and 3D data into a one-stop catalog used by all agencies at all levels of the Ningxia Autonomous Region’s government. Since the platform was released in 2016, an unprecedented amount of authoritative data has been made available to government and civilian users alike.

Esri China’s president, Francis Ho, has witnessed the rapid migration of location intelligence capabilities to cloud infrastructure—and believes that this will only continue.

“Organizations are rapidly adopting GIS and combining it with the capabilities of cloud technology,” said Ho. “Our users already rely on ArcGIS Enterprise and Alibaba Cloud to do this reliably and efficiently, using world-class innovation from our GIS experts in China, the United States, and around the world.”

Alibaba Cloud provides robust and licensed images of popular operating systems, such as Windows Server 2016 and RedHat Enterprise Linux, in its Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances. Several of these available operating systems are already tested, certified, and supported by Esri. This means that organizations can deploy ArcGIS Enterprise technology in Alibaba Cloud ECS immediately.

As Esri’s relationship with Alibaba Cloud moves forward, its product engineers and developers will continue to work on adding support for other systems and services.

Customized maps for the Ningxia Land and Resources Bureau — Using ArcGIS in Alibaba Cloud, the Land and Resources Bureau in Ningxia, China, can now create customized apps with Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS that display interactive versions of its maps, including this geologic disaster map.

Scaling ArcGIS Seamlessly in Alibaba Cloud

The Geographic Center of the Land and Resources Bureau in Ningxia, China, wanted to establish a one-stop, cross-agency geographic information management, processing, and shared cloud services platform for both government and private use. Such a platform would provide authoritative geographic information services and maps to government agencies to help them conduct development programs in a more holistic and integrated manner. It would also give residents of Ningxia access to high-quality geographic data and maps. The shared library would serve as the government’s database for basic geographic information.

To meet all these requirements, Ningxia authorities chose to use ArcGIS Enterprise combined with cloud computing services from Alibaba Cloud. Esri China’s partner GISUNI helped the bureau set it all up.

Consolidating, Accessing, and Managing Geographic Data

The implementation team discovered early on that there were no consistent inventories of or standards for the large volumes of data that each agency individually held. Consolidating the data was further complicated by the need to adhere to strict data confidentiality policies and ensure that storage and access to sensitive data conformed with all applicable laws.

Engagement with potential users revealed that a majority were unfamiliar with managing and processing geographic information, yet they planned to use the data for advanced analysis and visualization. Furthermore, these potential users had expectations of a flexible, web-based, and easy-to-use system that could adapt to rapidly changing needs and a growing number of users in all agencies.

Setting Up ArcGIS Enterprise in Alibaba Cloud

Each agency was provided with ArcGIS Desktop software and specialist support to inventory and standardize its data holdings. While still retaining ownership and control of their data, the agencies used ArcGIS Server to publish services that were compliant with Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC), standards.

A single, unified geographic information portal was then established using ArcGIS Enterprise and hosted in Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Services (ECS). GISUNI’s GIStack solution monitors and scales the software and services to match users’ growing demands.

Once authenticated, all users are provided with distinct permissions to the appropriate and authoritative data services, which can be employed in 2D web maps and 3D web scenes. Users are also provided with access to Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS, which allows them to rapidly author smart and effective web apps without doing any coding.

Automatic Scaling Meets Publishing Needs

The platform, which was implemented in 10 months, has delivered on the promise of giving users real-time, analytical, and visualization tools to help them make effective 2D maps and highly realistic 3D scenes.

Since the platform launched in 2016, the visitor frequency and number of data services published has increased beyond expectations. The growth has been seamlessly addressed by the automatic scaling of Alibaba Cloud, Esri, and GISUNI technology.

The system is now employed by all bureaus and agencies in the Ningxia region and provides standardized data to the national government. Residents and government agency users are rapidly locating and employing the appropriate authoritative geographic information, while each agency is able to confidently protect its confidential and sensitive data.