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ArcGIS for Server

What’s New in ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5: Unleashing Power, Performance, and Exciting Possibilities

Posted on by Andrew Orton

ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 has arrived and it’s packed with enhancements that we at Blue Raster are excited to share. As longtime experts and Esri partners, we’ve explored this latest release and are already helping clients unlock its full potential. From improved administrative tools to deeper integration with cloud environments, version 11.5 is a big step forward for organizations managing spatial data, services, and applications.

The Last Stop in the 11.x Series

ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 is more than just a feature rich release. It is also the final version in the 11.x series. This means it is the last release to include ArcGIS Web AppBuilder, ArcGIS Configurable Apps, and Map Viewer Classic. These long loved tools have served users well over the years and their retirement signals a shift toward the modern web GIS experience centered on Experience Builder, Instant Apps, and the new Map Viewer.

Looking ahead, ArcGIS Enterprise 12.0 will launch as a short term support release for Windows and Linux. It will no longer include these classic apps and will mark the beginning of the 12.x generation. If your organization relies on any of these applications, now is the time to begin planning for a smooth transition. Blue Raster can guide you through migration strategies that preserve your workflows while unlocking the benefits of the modern ArcGIS platform.

Smarter Administration and Monitoring

ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 introduces key enhancements that make monitoring and managing your GIS deployment easier for both GIS and IT administrators. The new About page centralizes important system information such as machine details, operating system, CPU, and licenses, helping administrators with planning and resource management.

ArcGIS 11.5

This image shows the “About” page for an ArcGIS Enterprise organization, as well as the JSON representation of the data on the page.

The service usage by user report offers detailed insights into how services are accessed, allowing administrators to identify usage trends and optimize content delivery.

IT administrators benefit from improved audit logging for ArcGIS Server events, aiding security compliance and diagnostics. These logs integrate smoothly with Security Information and Event Management systems for centralized monitoring.

Searching for the "oilPalmConcessions" sublayer returns the "SampleSHPUpload_Test1" hosted feature layer

Searching for the “oilPalmConcessions” sublayer returns the “SampleSHPUpload_Test1” hosted feature layer

The "SampleSHPUpload_Test1" hosted feature layer contains an "oilPalmConcessions" sublayer

The “SampleSHPUpload_Test1” hosted feature layer contains an “oilPalmConcessions” sublayer

The new Enterprise Manager interface simplifies system health checks, service management, and permission controls. Expanded REST APIs and flexible role configurations provide greater administrative control.

At Blue Raster, we enhance these tools with Zabbix, integrated into our cloud managed services for real time monitoring and proactive alerts. Together with ArcGIS Monitor, this helps maximize uptime by tracking critical events such as license expirations and certificate renewals.

Other improvements include:

  • Enhanced delete protection and content management
  • Greater control over ArcGIS Pro offline licenses
  • Integration of Living Atlas deep learning models
  • Support for Snowflake key pair authentication
  • Migration support away from the tile cache data store

Enhanced Map Viewer and Visualization

ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 brings a suite of enhancements that elevate productivity, editing workflows, and content management. In Map Viewer, users can now edit feature templates directly, improving consistency in data collection while eliminating app switching.

A new multi-tab view allows users to work across tables, charts, and analysis tools simultaneously. Charting also sees major upgrades, with custom sorting, temporal axis guides, and the ability to build bar charts from numeric field parameters alone.

Display filters from ArcGIS Pro are now honored in web maps, and subtype sublayers are fully supported for analysis. In Scene Viewer, users can take advantage of an improved Building Explorer, Slide Manager, and mobile interface to better present and explore 3D content. The update also includes new 3D analysis tools, viewshed capabilities, support for OGC WCS layers, and the integration of Oriented Imagery layers to visualize real-world perspectives in 3D.

For content management, 11.5 introduces the ability to publish geotagged photos directly from a .zip file as a hosted layer and overwrite item metadata using a more intuitive metadata editor-helping administrators maintain clean, accurate data across their organization.

Easily switch between viewing tables, charts, geoprocessing results, and more with new multi-tab functionality in Map Viewer

Easily switch between viewing tables, charts, geoprocessing results, and more with new multi-tab functionality in Map Viewer

Stronger Performance and Cloud Optimization

ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 delivers significant performance upgrades across analytics, publishing, and service response. Organizations deploying in cloud or hybrid environments will benefit from improved container support, optimized deployment tools for Kubernetes, and better scalability for both Windows and Linux systems.

Blue Raster is already helping clients upgrade to 11.5 with smooth migrations and tailored configurations. Whether you are on premises, in the cloud, or working in a hybrid model, our team can help ensure your system is tuned for stability, speed, and security.

Ready to Upgrade? Let’s Talk

ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 isn’t just another update, it’s a milestone. With the 11.x series coming to a close, now is the time to position your organization for the future. Whether that means upgrading, modernizing your apps, or transitioning to Experience Builder and the latest generation of web tools, Blue Raster is here to help. 📩 Reach out today to talk with our team about your ArcGIS Enterprise roadmap

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Enhanced Performance with Blue Raster’s Cloud-Managed Services: Integrating Zabbix and ArcGIS Monitor for Proactive Management

Posted on by Chigo Ibeh

At Blue Raster, we understand that organizations rely on uninterrupted access to their geospatial data and services. With the rapid shift towards cloud-based infrastructure, it’s essential to have a solution that not only supports deployment and scalability but also proactively manages and monitors these environments. That’s where our cloud-managed services come in, offering an all-encompassing solution designed to ensure your ArcGIS Enterprise environment runs smoothly and efficiently.

 

 

Why Cloud-Managed Services Matter

 

The complexity of modern GIS environments means that organizations need to stay ahead of potential issues before they impact performance or cause downtime.

Managing an ArcGIS Enterprise environment involves more than just deploying servers—it requires constant oversight of infrastructure, software updates, system performance, and security compliance.

Blue Raster’s Cloud-Managed Services provides a comprehensive solution, taking the burden off your internal teams and ensuring your systems are optimized and up-to-date.

 

Zabbix and ArcGIS Monitor: A Perfect Partnership

One of the key features of our managed services is proactive monitoring. We leverage industry-leading tools such as Zabbix and ArcGIS Monitor to give clients visibility into system performance, helping to anticipate issues before they become problems.

  • Zabbix, a powerful and highly customizable monitoring tool, offers real-time monitoring of cloud infrastructure, allowing us to track server health, certificate expirations, license renewals, and more.
  • ArcGIS Monitor provides deep insights into the health and performance of your ArcGIS Enterprise deployment, tracking usage patterns, service response times, and system resources.

While both capable of working as standalone monitoring solutions, the ability of Zabbix and ArcGIS Monitor to work in tandem creates a dynamic duo, offering comprehensive monitoring across both your infrastructure and GIS-specific components. This ensures that our team can monitor everything from hardware utilization to application-level performance. By utilizing both tools, Blue Raster can help you maximize uptime, optimize resources, and ensure that your GIS operations are always running at peak efficiency.

Cloud-Managed Services Tailored to Your Needs

Our managed services aren’t just about keeping the lights on—they’re about future-proofing your investment in GIS technology. With our cloud management services, you can be rest assured that you’ll have a partner dedicated to not only monitoring your systems but also optimizing them for long-term success. Whether it’s managing updates to ArcGIS Enterprise, renewing licenses, or ensuring security patches are applied, Blue Raster has you covered.

Let Us Handle the Heavy Lifting

With over two decades of experience as an Esri Partner, Blue Raster’s team of DevOps engineers and GIS experts are equipped to handle the most complex cloud environments. We offer a tailored approach to meet your organization’s unique needs, ensuring that your GIS infrastructure stays secure, efficient, and scalable. Our services go beyond deployment to provide continuous monitoring, management, and optimization.

By incorporating tools like Zabbix and ArcGIS Monitor, we not only track the performance of your entire GIS ecosystem but also give you peace of mind knowing that potential issues are caught early. This allows your organization to focus on what matters—delivering value through GIS, without worrying about downtime or performance bottlenecks.

 

Contact us today and learn how we can help you maximize your system performance.

 

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Esri ArcGIS Cloud Specialty: Elevating our clients’ GIS capabilities to the sky

Posted on by Jacob Radomsky

Blue Raster is thrilled to be a member of the Esri ArcGIS Cloud Services Specialty. This specialty designates Blue Raster as an expert in deploying and managing ArcGIS in cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. The Cloud Specialty program is designed to help Esri connect customers with recognized Partners that can best provide ArcGIS cloud solutions. Partners that meet the criteria for this specialty must demonstrate a track record of delivering value to their customers in implementing, managing, and designing cloud infrastructure in the Esri ArcGIS environment.  

Esri Cloud Services Specialty

To attain this specialty, Esri assessed Blue Raster’s expertise in the following areas of ArcGIS Cloud services: cloud deployments, system architecture and design, migrations, and managed services. Our deployments of ArcGIS Enterprise in the cloud include routine monitoring and maintenance to allow us to fine tune the system as needed, ensuring reliability and performance. Our system architecture and design experience encompasses single machine and multi machine architectures in both AWS and Azure that are customized to our clients’ specifications. We support all types of migrations including on-premises to cloud provider migrations, ArcGIS Online to ArcGIS Enterprise, and integration with third party providers.

Our portfolio of managed services includes the utilization of a wealth of Esri products and tools in the ArcGIS family such as ArcGIS Enterprise, Data Store, GIS Server, GeoAnalytics Server, GeoEvent Server, Notebooks, Image Server, Pro, Monitor, and Enterprise Geodatabases. Implementing these tools empowers us to provide a number of managed cloud services to our clients including design consultation, server construction, Esri software installation, infrastructure troubleshooting, distributed systems configuration, geographic redundancy configuration, OS patching, Esri security patching, routine Esri patch deployment, DevOps services, and user training services, among others. Blue Raster is primed and ready to meet our clients’ needs in all areas of the Esri ArcGIS cloud.

ArcGIS Cloud Solutions by Blue Raster

With over 10 years of experience providing ArcGIS Cloud consulting services, Blue Raster is proud to be a trusted resource for a variety of cloud solutions, including: 

    • Cloud ArcGIS Enterprise implementation 
    • Data migration 
    • System architecture and design 
    • Enterprise migration 
    • Security 

We use our cloud expertise to assist a variety of clients with a range of projects. Our dedicated DevOps team supports our cloud projects from requirements gathering through completion. Keep checking our blog posts for our latest projects as we continually grow and evolve our cloud-based service offerings.  

Are you looking to expand your ArcGIS capabilities in the cloud?
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help!

Improving Deforestation Risk Management in Commodity Supply Chain

Posted on by Chigo Ibeh

Blue Raster developed Global Forest Watch Pro, a decision support tool that empowers companies to monitor their supply chains for responsible environmental practices. Companies can upload all of their of sourcing areas, farms, and supply sheds for analysis and view interactive maps and diagnostics displaying occurrences of deforestation, alerts for forest fires, land cover types. The site now serves nearly 1,000 users across approximately 350 organizational accounts. Current users are spread across every continent in the world.

GFW Pro map

To support the growing use, Blue Raster recently implemented several updates. The analysis back-end is modernized to make it more scalable and provides more power for processing data faster. The team also moved to a Spark engine and incorporated an AWS Step workflow to allow for higher data processing capacity and improved functionality for the tool.

Mekong Monitor – Providing Vital Insight for River-dependent Communities

Posted on by Chigo Ibeh

The Mekong River runs through six countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, and Vietnam. It provides a livelihood and natural resources for over 60 million people. New upstream dams in China are changing the waterflow, creating a huge impact on the countries and people that depend on the river. Using the Mekong Dam Monitor as a tool, the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program and Eyes on Earth, Inc committed to working with countries to gain more visibility into the flow of the river and better plan for water availability.

Mekong MonitorBlue Raster developed the Mekong Dam Monitor to provide unprecedented transparency of the flow of water and conditions of dams and reservoirs along the Mekong River. Using satellite data as well as weather and water gauge data, the monitor provides visibility into what is happening upstream, giving a comprehensive near-real time view of the current state of the Mekong basin along with historic conditions. This allows people all along the river and those advocating for more equitable and sustainable use of the river to understand and plan for changes in the levels of the river.

Mekong Monitor

In late 2021, Blue Raster integrated WordPress into the application, making it easier for the project administrators to make updates to the site themselves. The site also received an update to the UI, making it more mobile friendly to support growing field use. Finally, the team also coordinated making the site available in six local languages, increasing the access to this valuable data on water levels and projected water flow.

Mekong Monitor

Blue Raster is proud to continue to support this project, providing real time visibility and reporting on impacts of up river decisions on the various communities that rely on the Mekong.

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