According to Product Manager Bernie Szukalski, ArcIMS is more than just an Internet mapping solution-it is a framework for distributing GIS capabilities via the Internet. On the serverside, ArcIMS includes a wide variety of functionality, and future extensions will deliver even more GIS capabilities. Another feature of ArcIMS is its ability to integrate local data sources with Internet data sources for display, query, and analysis. The ability of ArcIMS to integrate local and Internet data is a very powerful feature and will extend the user's GIS desktop to include virtually any ArcIMS site in the world, said Szukalski. In the box ArcIMS includes HTML and Java clients plus supports a full suite of other ESRI software such as ArcExplorer, ArcPad, and other devices.
Users can also develop custom desktop applications using the ArcIMS connector interface.
The ArcIMS Java and HTML client viewers process data on the client machine, performing many tasks without further interaction with the server. Some of these clients are free and lighter weight in capabilities, while others offer full, professional-level capabilities, says Szukalski. ArcIMS offers a large variety of server-and clientside options, which really distinguishes this software from the competition. For example, city workers can integrate their local parcel data with flood information from FEMA, elevation information from USGS, or other environmental data and combine this information on their desktop to perform specialized query and analysis. The ArcIMS server technology is part of a multitier architecture.