AT&T announced that ESRI will deploy AT&T's utility computing service to support the dynamic requirements of some of ESRI's newest Web-based applications, such as the Hurricane Disaster Viewer.
AT&T's Managed Utility Computing Pay-Per-Use offer makes computing resources and infrastructure management available to customers like ESRI when needed, helping customers match their IT investment with business demands. This service, which uses Sun Microsystems Inc. hardware, software and services for its high performance, compute-intensive requirements, is especially attractive to customers whose businesses experience unpredictable demands.
The Hurricane Disaster Viewer (arcweb.esri.com/sc/hurricane_viewer), for example, enables the public, emergency responders, relief organizations, and others to locate an address or zoom to areas of interest, such as those declared "damaged" by FEMA. The application also provides post-disaster satellite imagery, population density, street maps, and more.
"AT&T and Sun recognized our need to deploy highly reliable commercial Web services, including proprietary customer and partner data and applications; and to monitor and measure the usage of systems and performance in support of these deployments," said Mike Tait, director of Internet Solutions at ESRI. "AT&T's managed utility computing capability enables us to confidently and efficiently outsource these systems for our customers and quickly scale to meet growing demands."
Newly launched ESRI Web services and applications using GIS technology provide government agencies, commercial businesses, and the public access to rich geographic content, such as satellite imagery, business demographics, and real-time weather and traffic conditions, as well as geographic capabilities, such as mapping, spatial searching, and optimized routing.
AT&T will host ESRI's Sun-based infrastructure, which includes the full range of Sun Fire servers and the Solaris operating system for these new applications, at AT&T's Mesa, Arizona, and Ashburn, Virginia, Internet Data Centers (IDCs). AT&T operates 26 IDCs worldwide and has announced plans to expand to 28.
"AT&T is focused on providing our customers, like ESRI, value-added managed hosting services, such as the ability to pay as they go and to scale their IT resources as their businesses grow," said Mike Jenner, vice president of AT&T Hosting and Application Management Services. "It's capabilities like this--offered with industry leaders like Sun--that help us enable our customers to easily and affordably manage their applications and better serve their end-users."
Additionally, the Geodata.gov site (www.geodata.gov/)--another application hosted by ESRI--was recently re-launched using AT&T's utility computing service. Geodata.gov is part of the Geospatial One-Stop E-Gov initiative providing access to geospatial data and information. The site enables sharing of geographic data and resources to enhance government efficiency and improve citizen services.
