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About ArcGIS for Server
ArcGIS for Server is software that makes your geographic information available to others in your organization and optionally anyone with an Internet connection. This is accomplished through web services, which allow a powerful server computer to receive and process requests for information sent by other devices. ArcGIS for Server opens your GIS to tablets, smartphones, laptops, desktop workstations, and any other devices that can connect to web services.
As you utilize ArcGIS for Server, use the following workflow to make your geographic information available through the server:
- Author—The GIS resource using ArcGIS for Desktop.
- Publish—The resource as a service using ArcGIS for Server.
- Use—The service through a client application.
To develop with ArcGIS for Server, the following options are available:
- ArcGIS Objects SDK for .NET and Java
- ArcGIS REST API
- ArcGIS SOAP SDK
For information about APIs that work with ArcGIS Server, visit the ArcGIS for Developers website. For example, Esri offers a web mapping API for JavaScript. You can use this API to build a web application from scratch. The API offers commonly used GIS functionality and is designed to be accessible to beginning programmers.
System requirements
For a list of ArcGIS Server system requirements, see ArcGIS Server system requirements.