The technological components will work with each other. ArcMap works ok under Citrix, and I would presume Manifold would too. A T1 should be sufficient, however, that's only point to point, once you get inside your LAN, pass firewalls, routers, switches, etc. you may find that the latency degrades performance to the point where your people will start questioning your strategy, if not more. DO NOT go to ArcMap 9.0, not now, not for a while, and certainly set up a test-bed area before going live with this "ASP" setup. The real problem is the total cost of ownership is not a compelling strategy. NONE of the GIS software vendors, and for that matter, NONE of the database companies really make deploying an architecture that you are planning economically feasible. ESRI strategy is ArcIMS, however, that's very pricey, and they may view your system as a "commercial" ASP and thus take both arms, both legs, first born, etc. in licensing fees and support WITH NO upside in performance for your people. Have you considered how you will handle imagery or 3D models ? Bandwidth consumption on those is exponential. Will you host the server farm yourself ? Physical and network security ? I suggest asking Citrix to send someone out to demo with your applications, or provide you case studies, real metrics on performance. They have reference clients in our industry and should be able, if not willing, to provide solid evidence of previous deployments. Remember, your SLA with your T1 provider will NOT cover ArcMap crashing, Windows crashing, Oracle crashing, your hardware crashing, etc. etc. so don't fall into a sense of invincibility if your T1 provider says they can provide 5 9's [99.999% uptime], it's effectively a meaningless metric, because 5 9's is almost a commodity at this point.
Don't know what your annual bill is to ESRI, or others, but suggest you try and leverage them into a TRUE "utility computing" pricing structure. That is, you use it [pick your metric here, per minute, per hour, per month] and you pay for it. You can clearly see why ESRI and others DO NOT embrace this model, as it would quickly become very popular, and like the wireless plans that offer 3,000 anytime minutes for $40/month, the GIS software vendors would quickly find themselves working hard to be competitive and would actually foster real innovation and more user-friendly packaged deals.
Anthony
> -----Original Message----- > From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com > [mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of > Elizabeth Martinez > Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 3:08 PM > To: gis list > Subject: [gislist] citrix > > Greetings, > > > > Anyone have experience using ArcMap via a citrix connection? > We will have a > T1 connection to the internet, and I am looking into > purchasing a new server. I have a Citrix license that will be > installed next week and I am thinking down the road and > wondering about using the citrix connection to access ArcMap > or Manifold to look at and/our work with shape files from > remote offices (at the moment I have individual licenses for > ArcView 8.3 soon to be 9.0). Any words of advice, > encouragement, or warning? > > Thanks in advance, happy to sum. > > > > Elizabeth > > > > Director GIS / IT > > The Forestland Group > > 1512 East Franklin Street, Suite 104 > > Chapel Hill, NC 27514 > > 919-929-2497 > > 919-929-8265 (fax) > > elizabeth@forestlandgroup.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > gislist mailing list > gislist@lists.geocomm.com > http://lists.geocomm.com/mailman/listinfo/gislist > > _________________________________ > This list is brought to you by > The GeoCommunity > http://www.geocomm.com/ > > Get Access to the latest GIS & Geospatial Industry RFPs and > bids http://www.geobids.com >
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