About ArcGIS for Server
ArcGIS for Server is a Web geographic information system (GIS) that helps you make your geographic information available to others. You may have experience using GIS software to create GIS resources, which are the maps, geodatabases, and other tools that you need to store and use your geographic information. ArcGIS for Server gives you the power to take the GIS resources on your computer and make them available to a wider group of users throughout a network of computers. With ArcGIS for Server, the way you publish a GIS resource to others is through a service.
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.
For a developer, there are many options with ArcGIS for Server including the following:
- ArcGIS Server software development kit (SDK) for .NET and Java
- ArcGIS API for JavaScript
- ArcGIS JavaScript extension for the Google Maps API
- ArcGIS JavaScript extension for Bing Maps
- ArcGIS API for Silverlight/Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
- ArcGIS API for Flex
- ArcGIS Server Representational State Transfer (REST) API
- ArcGIS Server Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) SDK
System requirements
For a list of ArcGIS Server system requirements, see ArcGIS Server System Requirements on the Resource Center Web site.