Microsoft VE to be in ESRI’s ArcGIS Online

The press release came out yesterday and was picked up by a number of blogs, though few had any immediate comment. I’m in the same boat. It crossed my desk and I didn’t get an immediate sense of a world changing event.

That said:

- ESRI rarely announces anything new before the User Conference.

- Delivery of Virtual Earth content via ArcGIS Online was hinted at in the ESRI UC Q & A (including pricing: $200/year per ArcGIS seat).

- ESRI has yet to officially launch ArcGIS Online; that’s coming next month.

- ESRI’s “Google” announcement at Where was rather “hands off,” that is required seemingly little partnering. This is different from a business standpoint since I have to believe Microsoft will receive some money from each subscription for its data.

Now, back to my “world changing event” comment. The reason this doesn’t seem world changing is that it’s a small step toward the future: a future of servers and services and the cloud. In this new ESRI vision, there are no “map servers” only “GIS servers” that provide data and key service. Users consume them via the Web, ArcGIS Explorer, on mobiles, and for perhaps a select few, a desktop GIS. To implement this vision, ESRI needs a different kind of partner, one that can help enable this vision. Thus, partners like Microsoft (VE and other things) and Adobe (Flex), are playing different roles than in the past. I suggest users keep their eyes open at ESRI UC for other clues that point to this type of future.