Since the launch of their first commercial software in 1982, the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc (now known simply as Esri) has been a dominant force in geospatial technology. Exactly how much of the market Esri controls is debatable (the widely cited 43% dates back to a report published in 2015), but its status as an industry leader cannot be denied. Their cited user metrics are staggering:
Anyone familiar with Geographic Information Systems would not be surprised by any of these figures. Esri, and its flagship software ArcGIS, are so ubiquitous in the field that they have become nearly synonymous with the concept as a whole.
My intent with this piece was to pinpoint why Esri is so dominant. The problem is, they do everything and they always have. So what is that magic touch?
See line 1 of the table above.
Early Entry and Continued Innovation
The history of Esri is essentially a history of geospatial technologies as a whole. Founded by husband and wife team Jack and Laura Dangermond in 1969 as a land management firm, Esri was one of the earliest companies in the GIS space. They served private clients and established a strong foothold in the market, and then continued to set standards with crucial software innovations.
Esri's GIS command-line based workstation ARC/INFO was among the first of its kind to hit the market in 1982. ArcView 1.0 (1991) tackled accessibility with a GUI geared toward users that only needed to view and query the spatial data from their command-line products.
Advent of the Shapefile
Through out the 90's Esri focused on improving ArcView, with each release adding new functionality and features. For one, the now ubiquitous Shapefile form (Esri's own digital vector storage type for grouping geographic location data and associated attributes) premiered with ArcView 2.x. Each new iteration saw increased functionality, and with the release of ArcView GIS 3.x in 1997 it had enough capabilities and functions to be considered a true (but limited) GIS platform. Esri also had a programming library (Map Objects) and a relational database system (ArcSDE), but all of these products were a la carte and the interoperability was not there.
In 1999 Esri combined these crucial components with the release of the ArcGIS software suite. The ArcGIS package bundled three crucial components: functionality and analysis (the Arc/INFO workstation), a visual user interface (new GUI dubbed ArcMap), and a file management system (ArcCatalog). The "one million licensed seats" milestone was met shortly after in 2001.
Component Libraries, Tools, and Extensions
The subsequent versions of ArcGIS came packed with extensions and increasing access to online data. Users could perform advanced 3D modeling, complex analysis, and compare across multiple databases. The 2000 launch of their spatial server ArcIML and ArcXML completely opened up geospatial data once stowed away in government databases to the world.
Modern Platforms and Innovations
Today Esri has two primary platforms: ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro. ArcPRO is the supercharged desktop software with groundbreaking functions and tools. Users can manage their spacial data, perform advanced analytics, and create complex 2D, 3D, even 4D models
ArcGIS online has data management and analyzation capabilities as well, but with limitations. Where online shines is in the ability to collaborate and quickly share maps and findings.
Esri continues to integrate with new technologies, such as AI, machine learning, IoT, and 3D modeling. The cover image for this piece is actually one such example, it's an example of Esri's AI-generate art!
While there are other GIS platforms (e.g., QGIS, Google Earth, MapInfo), ArcGIS's combination of history, functionality, and ecosystem has made it the most widely used and recognized GIS software in the world.
Sources
Cover Image
ArcIMS and ArcXML Images
Esri History of GIS timeline
Esri
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