ArcSDE (Arc Spatial Database Engine) is a server-software sub-system (produced and marketed by

Esri Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri (), is an American Multinational corporation, multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for ...

) that aims to enable the usage of

relational database management system A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured for ...

s for spatial data. The spatial data may then be used as part of a geodatabase.

History

Geographic Technologies Incorporated (GTI) in Australia originally designed the database software, named Spatial DataBase Engine (SDBE). Development shifted to Salamanca Software Pvt Ltd., which developed the first production version. SDBE originally used the

InterBase InterBase is a relational database management system (RDBMS) currently developed and marketed by Embarcadero Technologies. It runs on the operating systems Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Oracle Solaris, Solaris, Android (operating system), Andr ...

DBMS In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and ana ...

. The president of

Jack Dangermond Jack Dangermond (born 1945) is an American billionaire businessman and environmental scientist, who in 1969 co-founded, with Laura Dangermond, the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a privately held geographic information systems ...

, announced SDE at the GIS'95 conference in

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British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, and Esri purchased Salamanca Software in 1996. Esri rebranded the software as "ArcSDE" to follow the naming convention of other products. ArcSDE grew to meet the need of users of geographic data for robust multi-user editing, storage and access of extremely large geospatial databases. ArcSDE supports the Esri geodatabase implementation. The product began as stand-alone software: Esri integrated it into

ArcGIS ArcGIS is a family of client, server and online geographic information system (GIS) software developed and maintained by Esri. ArcGIS was first released in 1982 as ARC/INFO, a command line-based GIS. ARC/INFO was later merged into ArcGIS De ...

version 9.2. In 2013 ESRI announced plans to deprecate the ArcSDE command line tools and the ArcSDE application server following the forthcoming release of ArcGIS 10.2.

ArcSDE 10.1 and 10.2

with the release of 10.1, Esri sells ArcSDE as a component of

ArcGIS Server ArcGIS Server is the core server geographic information system (GIS) software made by Esri. ArcGIS Server is used for creating and managing GIS Web services, applications, and data. ArcGIS Server is typically deployed on-premises within the organ ...

- part of the

family of software products which integrates geographic-information query, mapping, spatial analysis, and editing within a multi-user enterprise DBMS environment.

Functionality

ArcSDE enables organizations to move from a traditional approach — managing separate collections of geographic data files — to an integrated environment in which one can manage spatial data as a continuous database: accessible to the entire organization simultaneously and easily publishable on the

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

. It stores spatial data using the Geodatabase data model and structure. ArcSDE as an application server facilitates storing and managing spatial data (raster, vector, and survey) Compare: in a DBMS and makes the data available to many applications. ArcSDE allows one to manage spatial data in any of four commercial databases ( IBM Db2,

Informix Informix is a product family within IBM's Information Management division that is centered on several relational database management system (RDBMS) and multi-model database offerings. The Informix products were originally developed by Inform ...

Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server is a proprietary relational database management system developed by Microsoft using Structured Query Language (SQL, often pronounced "sequel"). As a database server, it is a software product with the primary function of ...

and

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

). Starting with the 9.3 release, Esri added support for the open-source

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL ( ) also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source software, free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL features transaction processing, transactions ...

database. ArcSDE serves data for the advanced ArcGIS Desktop products (

ArcView ArcView, now referred to as ArcGIS for Desktop Basic, is the entry-level licensing level of ArcGIS Desktop, a geographic information system software product produced by Esri. It is intended by Esri to be the logical migration path from ArcView ...

, ArcEditor and

ArcInfo ArcInfo (formerly ARC/INFO) is a full-featured geographic information system produced by Esri, and is the highest level of licensing (and therefore functionality) in the ArcGIS Desktop product line. It was originally a command-line based system ...

); the ArcGIS development products (ArcGIS Engine and ArcGIS Server), ArcView 3.x as well as ArcIMS. It is a key component in managing a multi-user Esri-based GIS. While traditional

RDBMS A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured forma ...

software keeps track of the tables and records contained in the database, ArcSDE pushes the relational model higher so that client software can manage geographic data - which comprise several tables - seamlessly. The user need have no awareness of nor dealings with the particulars of the RDBMS. The GIS environment routes all connections to the database through the ArcSDE

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software program that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to imple ...

, which manages the storing and retrieval of data.

References

External links

Esri webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arcsde Esri software Relational database management systems