The USDA and Esri have partnered in the implementation of a fully cloud-based geospatial portal. USDA’s prototype portal, Enterprise Spatial Mapping Service (ESMS), is built with Portal for ArcGIS, managed by Esri, and hosted on the Amazon cloud within USDA’s secure environment.

The teams designed the prototype’s geospatial interfaces with a focus on search and discovery, managed service hosting, and web service publishing of USDA-owned data. The portal introduced GIS productivity services for provisioning and consumption of web map services and the capability to geoprocess, display, and analyze data. The private cloud GIS makes the central repository for authoritative content accessible to users within the department as well as other public agencies. ESMS provides a platform to:
• Quickly create maps and apps using templates and web mapping APIs.
• Form groups to collaborate on projects or common activities.
• Share maps and apps with private groups or the entire organization.
• Embed maps and apps in custom web pages or blogs.