Preface 37th Edition
Fall 2015 System Design Strategies Preface 37th Edition
The System Design Strategies wiki documentation includes a table of contents and 12 separate chapters linked by a Table of Contents (TOC) at the top and bottom of each wiki chapter. System design concepts identified in the chapters include hyperlinks to system design demonstrations (analysis) included in the Capacity Planning Tool appendix. You can access the overall System Design Strategies table of contents page through the System Design Strategies link located at the top of each TOC insert. Each SDSwiki chapter includes a Contents providing an outline of the chapter information.
You are currently located on the System Design Strategies Preface chapter. This chapter provides an executive summary of the SDSwiki content.
Contents
- 1 What is the System Design Strategies documentation?
- 2 Who can benefit from this documentation?
- 3 What is this document all about?
- 3.1 System Design Process
- 3.2 GIS Software technology
- 3.3 Software Performance
- 3.4 Server Software Performance
- 3.5 GIS Data Administration
- 3.6 Network Communications
- 3.7 GIS Product Architecture
- 3.8 Platform Performance
- 3.9 Information Security
- 3.10 Performance Management
- 3.11 City of Rome
- 3.12 System Implementation
- 4 Capacity Planning Tool
- 4.1 System Design Process introduction (CPT Design process)
- 4.2 GIS Software Technology (CPT Workflow selection)
- 4.3 Software Performance (CPT Workflow Recipe)
- 4.4 Server Software Performance (Map service configuration)
- 4.5 GIS Data Administration (Data source selection)
- 4.6 Network Communications (Infrastructure configuration)
- 4.7 Product Architecture (Platform configuration)
- 4.8 Platform Performance (Selecting the right vendor platform)
- 4.9 Security (no demos)
- 4.10 Performance Management
- 4.11 System Implementation (no CPT demos)
- 4.12 City of Rome CPT Demos
- 5 Acronyms and Glossary
- 6 Record of Key 2015 Capacity Planning Reference Sites
- 7 What is Dave Peters' role at Esri?
- 8 Previous Editions
What is the System Design Strategies documentation?
The System Design Strategies documentation was developed and maintained to share our system architecture design methodology and the fundamental principles that contribute to system performance and scalability. The System Design Strategies 26th Edition was released in August 2009 - the last PDF version of the complete document.
The first System Design Strategies content was published on the Esri wiki.gis.com site in March 2010 - the first "living" online System Design Strategies publication. The wiki technology provides a more adaptive publishing framework than what was available with static PDF documents - an opportunity to maintain and share much richer content in a timely manner. The System Design Strategies wiki site is maintained as a current resource - updated as required to keep pace with technology. Major updates are planned each year, providing a spring and fall release to reflect major changes in technology. Each update includes a link to previous release editions for historical reference.
Who can benefit from this documentation?
This document is shared to help Esri customers build and maintain successful GIS operations. The audience includes GIS managers, Project managers, GIS technical architects, IT administrators, business partners, systems integrators, system consultants, system administrators, and software developers - there is a broad audience that can benefit from an understanding of enterprise system performance and scalability. The content is focused on system design fundamentals - the technology concepts that contribute to successful GIS operations.
What is this document all about?
Technology has changed dramatically over the years, and updates to this document reflect those changes. Esri System Architecture Design services have evolved with the changing technology. Technology choices available today position GIS as a platform for effective Enterprise and Community business information systems integration.
System architecture design is a discipline that requires a clear understanding of business needs, user workflow requirements (business processes), GIS software technology patterns, software performance, data architecture patterns, network communications, GIS solution architecture, information security, and hardware platform performance. An Enterprise GIS design must consider business needs and the technical architecture required to meet user performance expectations.
GIS technology is rapidly evolving to leverage cloud computing platforms, including a full suite of applications and services to discover, create, manage, visualize, analyze, collaborate and share a better understanding of our world.
The chapters that follow provide an overview of the many pieces of technology that must work together within a distributed GIS production environment. Each chapter summary includes a list of primary content objectives. Online streaming video links are provided at the end of several chapters to demonstrate how the Capacity Planning Tool can be used to answer your performance and scalability questions and complete your system architecture design.
System Design Process
Topics covered
- What is System Architecture Design?
- Why is system architecture design important?
- What is the System Design Process?
- Building a GIS: Implementation strategy
- System design strategies overview
- System architecture design process
- Monitor performance compliance
The capacity planning tool provides a framework for collecting user requirements and completing the system design. This chapter ends with a streaming video that provides an introduction to the system design process and an overview of the structure of the Capacity Planning Tool.
GIS Software technology
Since the early 1970s, Esri has continued to develop GIS software technology supporting functional requirements identified by the GIS user community. Sensitivity to software development trends and enterprise architecture strategies provide guidelines for development investment. Esri software developers leverage the latest computer hardware and software technology to maintain leadership in the GIS marketplace. Resources are aligned to provide the best software and services based on GIS customer needs.
A variety of ArcGIS software technology patterns are available to satisfy enterprise business operational needs. Technology patterns include a broad range of Desktop, Server, and Mobile deployment options. Selecting the right technology is a critical step in the enterprise system design process.
Topics covered
- GIS Software Evolution
- Emerging technology trends
- Selecting the right computing architecture
- ArcGIS Platform: an architecture overview
- ArcGIS Online Services
- Portal for ArcGIS
- Developer GIS
- GIS Software Selection
This chapter ends with a Capacity Planning Tool online streaming video. The GIS Software Technology video describes how the capacity planning tool can be used to select the right software technology for each identified user workflow. This video focuses on understanding and configuring the CPT Workflow tab for an Enterprise GIS design.
Software Performance
This section shares lessons learned about selecting and building effective GIS design solutions that satisfy operational performance and scalability needs.
Capacity Planning Tools automate our system architecture design analysis (translate processing loads to hardware solutions) enabling refined and accurate performance management.
Building a system design that addresses capacity planning needs can improve user productivity and reduced implementation risk.
Topics covered
- Workflow baselines
- Custom workflows
- Software workflow recipe
- Software technology selection
- Data source selection
This chapter ends with a Capacity Planning Tool online streaming video. The Software Performance Video describes the CPT Calculator software technology selection and performance parameters that define user workflow performance targets. The result generated on the Calculator tab is transferred to the Workflow tab for use in the Enterprise system architecture design. The Calculator tab can also be used for system performance and scalability demonstrations and preliminary system architecture design analysis to evaluation a single workflow technology selection.
The video also describes the software component service times and network traffic performance factors included in the CPT Workflow tab. The Workflow tab identifies the processing loads used for complete the Enterprise system design analysis. Selecting the proper user workflow processing loads (performance targets) is a critical step in completing a valid system architecture design.
Server Software Performance
Topics covered
- ArcGIS for Server terminology
- ArcGIS for Server pooling settings (service instance min/max settings)
- ArcGIS Service Editor processes settings
- Map Service caching configuration
- Map Service Instance Configuration Strategies
- Generating the map cache
- Managed services caching tools
- GIS Server machine memory configuration
This chapter ends with a Greek citizen declaration case study that highlights the value of proper software selection.
GIS Data Administration
A variety of data management and distribution strategies are available today to improve data access and dissemination throughout the rapidly expanding GIS user community. The volume of data you must sort through each day is growing exponentially. How you manage, organize, and control these data resources is critical to your success.
Topics covered
- GIS feature data architecture
- ArcGIS for Desktop direct connection to supported DBMS content
- GIS imagery data architecture
- GIS enterprise data architecture
- Storage architecture options
- Ways to move GIS data
- Protect your GIS data resources
Selection and configuration of your GIS data resources contributes to map service complexity and system performance.
Network Communications
Network communications provide the required connectivity for distributed GIS operations. Network capacity, in many cases, can limit the software technology solutions that perform well within your organization. System architecture design can identify and address network communication constraints and provide the right technical solution for a successful GIS implementation.
Properly configured communication technology enables broad range of software technology solutions, connecting over the Internet and bringing information from millions of sources directly to the GIS user desktop in real-time.
Mobile cell phones and tablet devices provide real time access to wireless communications connecting to global Internet information resources for mobile GIS clients.
Topics covered
- Why is GIS traffic-intensive?
- What is network capacity?
- GIS Client/Server Communication Protocols
- Network Performance
- Shared network performance
- Enterprise network architecture
- Network Suitability Analysis
- Network contribution to Web performance
This chapter ends with a Capacity Planning Tool online streaming video. The CPT Calculator demonstrates display traffic contribution to user display performance and the CPT Design completes the network bandwidth suitability assessment. This video shows how the CPT Calculator shows user workflow performance over limited bandwidth connections and how the CPT Design can be used to complete an enterprise design network suitability analysis.
GIS Product Architecture
GIS Product Architecture provides a foundation for understanding the software components and platform configuration options available for distributed GIS operations. Understanding application architecture alternatives and associated configuration strategies provides a foundation for selecting an appropriate distributed GIS design.
Enterprise-level GIS applications support a variety of users throughout an organization, all requiring access to shared spatial and attribute data sources. System hardware and software environments for distributed GIS applications are supported by a multi-tier client/server or Web services architecture.
Topics covered
- ArcGIS Software Architecture
- ArcGIS for Desktop architecture patterns
- ArcGIS for Server services architecture
- >ArcGIS for Server site single-tier platform configuration
- >ArcGIS for Server site two-tier platform configuration
- >ArcGIS for Server site three-tier platform configuration
This chapter ends with a Capacity Planning Tool online streaming video. The Product Architecture video shows how to select workflow platform architecture on the CPT Calculator tab and how to complete an enterprise level software installation and platform selection on the CPT Design tab.
Platform Performance
Selecting the right hardware will improve user performance, reduce overall system cost, and establish a foundation for building effective GIS operations. Selecting the wrong hardware can contribute to implementation failure - spending money on a system that will not support your business needs.
Hardware vendors do not know what hardware is required to satisfy your GIS needs. This chapter shares the system architecture design methodology developed to help you select the right hardware for your planned GIS operations. This chapter also shares information for justifying hardware purchases based on expected return on investment.
Topics covered
- Platform Performance Baseline
- Platform performance resources
- Platform Performance
- ArcGIS Desktop Platform Sizing
- Windows Terminal Server Platform Sizing
- ArcSDE Geodatabase Server Sizing
- Web Mapping Servers Sizing
- Platform Selection Criteria
This chapter ends with a Capacity Planning Tool online streaming video. The Platform Performance video provides an overview of the CPT Hardware tab and identifies the methodology for physical and virtual platform selection on the CPT Calculator and CPT Design tabs.
Information Security
This chapter provides an introduction to the purpose and scope of information security. Basic concepts are introduced for developing security solutions that meet your business needs. Esri's approach to enterprise security is adjusted based on customer needs, and information patterns share how to establish security measures appropriate for your organization.
Recent industry advancements, especially in the areas of web service standards and service-oriented architectures, are enabling architects to more effectively satisfy enterprise security objectives. Esri's careful attention to these standards, coupled with an overall philosophy of providing highly interoperable software, provides security architects with a high level of flexibility, thus establishing trust for all Esri components contained in an enterprise solution.
Topics covered
- What is information security?
- CIA security triad
- Levels of Security
- Standards approach to security risk management.
- Security framework and compliance
- ArcGIS product level security
- > ArcGIS for Server tier authentication
- > Enterprise ArcGIS for Server tier authentication
- > Enterprise level Web tier authentication
- Security in the cloud
- Esri informal pattern selection
- Enterprise security firewall patterns
Security is everybody's job, there is no exception. The world is not a secure environment, and you need to keep your eyes and minds open to the threats around you.
Performance Management
The Capacity Planning Tool was introduced in 2008 incorporating the best of the traditional client/server and web services sizing models providing an adaptive sizing methodology to support future enterprise GIS operations. The new capacity planning methodology is much easier to use and provides metrics to manage performance compliance during development, initial implementation, and system delivery. This chapter introduces how these design models can be used for performance management.
Topics covered
- System performance factors
- How is performance managed?
- What is a valid user workflow?
- What is a batch process?
- Platform throughput and service time
- Platform performance and response time
- Platform queue time
- How to size the network
- What is system performance?
- Performance Validation
This chapter ends with a Capacity Planning Tool online streaming video. The Performance Fundamentals video provides an overview of the CPT Design tab user requirements framework, demonstrates how the adjust functions are used to identify user productivity, and shows how the CPT test tab can be used to validate workflow performance compliance.
City of Rome
Esri has developed a system architecture design methodology for establishing hardware and network requirements needed to satisfy the performance and communication needs of GIS application users.
A fundamental understanding of user workflow requirements and the supporting GIS technology is required before one can identify the appropriate hardware and network requirements for supporting their enterprise GIS operations.
City of Rome is the name of a case study that demonstrates a process that can be used as a foundation for most enterprise system design analysis. This case study makes use of the Esri Capacity Planning Tools for modeling user requirements and completing the system architecture design
Topics covered
System Implementation
Enterprise IT environments involve integration of a variety of vendor technologies. Interoperability standards within commercial software environments are voluntary, and even the most simple system upgrade must be validated at each step of the integration process.
Enterprise GIS environments include a broad spectrum of technology integration. Most environments today include database servers, storage area networks, Windows Terminal Servers, Web servers, map servers, mobile and desktop clients—all connected by a broad range of local area networks, wide area networks, and Internet communications. All these technologies must function together properly to support a balanced computing environment.
Topics covered
- Integrated system design process
- Existing business architecture
- GIS Staffing
- Technical architecture review
- User requirements analysis
- System architecture design
- System architecture deployment strategy
- System testing
- Systems integration management
- Managing technology change
Successful implementation depends on a good solid design, appropriate hardware and software product selection, successful systems integration, and careful incremental evaluation during installation. A phased approach to implementation reduces project risk and promotes success, providing the opportunity for early success and flexibility to incorporate new technology at low risk through incremental system delivery.
Capacity Planning Tool
System Design Process introduction (CPT Design process)
-
- CPT User Needs summary: Business workflow requirements
- Calculator tab: Custom workflow loads analysis
- Workflow tab: Workflow loads definition
GIS Software Technology (CPT Workflow selection)
Software Performance (CPT Workflow Recipe)
Server Software Performance (Map service configuration)
GIS Data Administration (Data source selection)
Network Communications (Infrastructure configuration)
Product Architecture (Platform configuration)
Platform Performance (Selecting the right vendor platform)
Security (no demos)
Performance Management
The CPT provides a framework for integrating business, data, applications, and technical architecture needs required to design, deploy, and manage successful enterprise GIS operations.
System Implementation (no CPT demos)
City of Rome CPT Demos
Acronyms and Glossary
A complete list of Acronyms and Glossary is provided with this document. The glossary provides a definition of how key words are used within the context of this document.
Record of Key 2015 Capacity Planning Reference Sites
System Architecture Design Strategies training class
Capacity Planning Tool Updates Arc14CapacityPlanning0101 (January 2015)
2015 Esri Federal GIS Conference Plenary videos
Roger Tomlinson, Father of GIS
Thinking about GIS 5th Edition
Building a GIS 2nd Edition
Key references: Esri.com, ArcGIS Help Resources, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Marketplace
What is Dave Peters' role at Esri?
Dave Peters is the author and content manager of the System Design Strategies wiki site.
In 1990 Dave Peters was hired by Jack Dangermond to establish a Systems Integration department responsible for GIS turnkey system delivery (system architecture design, project management, and software installation for hardware/software turnkey projects). The Systems Integration department's initial focus was on project management (system delivery) and software installation services.
The first System Design Strategies white paper was published by Dave Peters in 1993 - a much simpler document than what we have today. Dave updated the System Design Strategies white paper once or twice a year to support Esri's system architecture design and consulting services. Dave moved the System Design Strategies documentation from a white paper to wiki.GIS.com with its 27th edition.
In 1998, Dave's Systems Integration department responsibilities shifted from turnkey system delivery to System Architecture Design consulting and System Test. Over the next eight years, Esri's System Architecture Design Consulting services grew in popularity and helped hundreds of customers deploy successful GIS operations. The Systems Integration department System Test team established a test lab and started using a targeted set of Esri software performance validation tests to evaluate and improve the capacity planning models used for System Architecture Design consulting.
In 1998, Esri Educational Services asked Dave to develop a class based on his System Design Strategies documentation. The first System Architecture Design Strategies training course was taught by Dave Peters in February 1999; class content was updated on a monthly basis to keep pace with technology. Additional instructors were provided from Dave's System Architecture Design consulting staff to support the expanding training class load.
In 2004 the Systems Integration department moved to Esri Professional Services. During that year, Esri Press published the first edition of Thinking about GIS; Roger asked Dave to share Esri's System Architecture Design methodology in a City of Rome system architecture design use case included in a chapter of his book. The City of Rome use case has been updated with each Thinking about GIS release, which is now in its 5th edition.
In 2006 the Systems Integration department joined with the Implementation Services department (within Esri Professional Services). Dave joined the Implementation Services senior staff and began work to develop a new open-source (Excel based) Capacity Planning Tool (CPT). The goal was to establish a simple application framework that would capture the Esri system architecture design methodology (a tool that would couple GIS user workflow requirements with the appropriate system architecture design solution). A simple tool that could be used by a much broader GIS community as a framework for designing and managing Enterprise GIS operations (documenting user requirements coupled with system architecture design). Dave would use Microsoft Excel as an application framework for user requirements collection and automated system architecture design analysis.
By January 2008, Dave's CPT was integrated into the Esri System Architecture Design Strategies training exercises, and students received a free Capacity Planning Tool for use as a framework for managing their own GIS operations. The Systems Architecture Design Strategies training was added to the International Teaching Program (ITP) later that year, and Dave conducted training workshops around the world sharing the Esri system architecture design methodology (including the Capacity Planning Tool) with our International Distributor technical staff.
In 2007, Esri Press asked Dave to author a book to share the Esri System Architecture Design methodology. In January 2011, Esri Press released the second edition of Building a GIS, System Architecture Design Strategies for Managers which includes a digital copy of the Capacity Planning Tool. Capacity Planning Tool updates are shared on the System Design Strategies wiki site.
In January 2010, Dave included a new CPT Calculator tool directly coupling GIS Standard Workflow service times to performance baselines derived from Implementation Services Enterprise Test Lab (ETL) benchmarks. The CPT Calculator generates custom workflow service times based on the selected software technology pattern, map document, display density, percent data cache, workflow complexity, display resolution, and output (baseline workflow service times were adjusted based on the selected performance parameters). The CPT Calculator includes options for generating composite dynamic and cached map services as a single workflow. The CPT Calculator workflow selection generates a workflow name showing the recipe (based on selected software technology performance factors) used to generate the CPT Calculator workflow service times. The workflow recipe allows resulting service times to be tracked back to established workflow performance baselines.
In summary, Dave Peters' efforts over the past 24 years have focused on understanding performance and scalability of Esri software technology, sharing his understanding with the Esri community, and developing system architecture design consulting services and systems management tools that help Esri customers build and maintain successful GIS operations.
Previous Editions
System Design Strategies Preface 36th Edition
System Design Strategies Preface 35th Edition
System Design Strategies Preface 34th Edition
System Design Strategies Preface 33rd Edition
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System Design Strategies 26th edition - An Esri ® Technical Reference Document • 2009 (final PDF release)
