Map Cache Tile Hosting
I have been sitting on this for a while now, but we finally have all our ducks in a row. I am ready to announce our new Image Tile Cache Hosting and Management service. We are now hosting several, multi gigabyte ArcGIS tile caches at our facilities and serving them via the ArcGIS Server 9.3 REST API.
This new service arose from our work with a client in which they needed to serve a nationwide raster dataset via the new ArcGIS Server 9.3 JavaScript API. This client also had lots of other sites that served ArcIMS images, and even other vector based ArcGIS dynamic layers. This client has some pretty decent bandwidth, a T1. However, it became apparent pretty quickly, that their bandwidth was becoming totally saturated and they were going to need to get more bandwidth, quick. These cached raster tiles are pretty big (lets say an average of 100 k per 512 x 512 tile). This application also took off pretty quickly (thanks to the ArcGIS Server team for making such a great developer toolset), which was great, but it was quickly becoming a victim of its own success. So, we decided to move the map cache to our facilities here at ROK, to offload some of the bandwidth draw to our connection instead of the clients. What a huge difference it made in the application. It has continued to gain (huge) popularity and is scaling quite nicely, without the client having to worry about bandwidth.
So, here is what this means to you, the application developer.
-We provide a very fast link to host and serve your tile cache to your web applications
-We can obtain your cache a number of ways, like ftp, snail mail, or even secure geodatabase replication
-We'll store your cache on multiple independent, fault tolerant network links
-We can create and manage your cache if you prefer. As you probably know, creating a cache can be quite a daunting process at times.
We can also host your entire application (and use our tile host of course) if you prefer. However, giving application developers having the option of offloading your huge cache files to another link is a huge benefit. As a user, I can tell you that I just *hate* waiting for maps to load. With this service, thats no longer an issue.
So, check out the little fact sheet, it describes the service and its benefits a little better than I can do. But, if you are interested in this, drop us a line info@roktech.net. I can even show you an app using our service vs. clients own bandwidth, if you are interested. Its a pretty amazing difference.
Quick Update - Some Links:
Here are some extremely simple demos. One is using the hosting service, and the other isnt. Honestly, these are not the best map services to demo with. I need to get some orthos set up. I have a couple more that I can't share publicly, but will show to anyone if they drop me an email.
The other problem with these demos is that the difference between the 2 isn't that obvious, if at all. This service becomes valuable as your load increases and you start falling short on bandwidth. These demos aren't exactly under a heavy load if you get my drift. Anyway, if you look look at firebug, you'll see I am using the new 1.1 js lib and taking advantage of multiple tileservers. One from S3, and one on my link. The combination of the two makes for some blazing speed when under any kind of load.
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I have had quite a few questions on this lately. I think that now that people are starting to really use ArcGIS Server, they see the need to offload their cache. I'm going to follow up with a better explanation of this service and how it all works soon.
For example, C00000000.jpg is a tile that was created by the ArcGIS Server create cache tool. When the web client requests that tile, it actually requests a file called 0.jpg. I honestly dont know why ESRI did it that way, but I assuming there is a reason for it (perhaps an esri engineer can chime in?).
Anyway, you need to run a big huge conversion process on that cache and convert it to the new fold/file structure. Once its converted, you simply upload that cache to a different network (which does not have to have ArcGIS server running) of your choice that has the bandwidth (we use a tool called BucketExplorer to upload...its quite good). In our case, we move it to our datacenter and to the amazon s3 service. No need for the VPC service.
This creates 2 'tileservers' that your application can request from. With some simple dns changes, you can 'virtually' make those into 4 tile servers...which gives you essentially 4 pipes in which to stream in tiles. Its amazing how much faster it is.
I really am planning an updated post on how this all works with some code samples to do the conversion.
thankx
If you used VPC with a mapped drive, the client would request a tile from the AGS box, the AGS box fetches the tile from vpc then sends it to the client. If you just use a tileserver/s3, the client directly requests the tiles from S3.
The upfront work is well worth it.
Also VPC requires more work with IT staff setting up a dedicated VPN. Looking froward to your addtional documents
on this subject.