GIS infrastructure and data plays a critical role in how local government agencies serve their communities. Municipal GIS Partners Inc. (MGP) partners with local government to embrace innovation, using data to drive positive outcomes for the communities they proudly serve. MGP supports municipalities and state and local government agencies, primarily across the Illinois area, with local government GIS solutions, ArcGIS Online and Enterprise data management and visualization, and Microsoft 365 shared services.
As MGP looked to continue expanding its reach to current and prospective clients, the organization needed to scale an already robust GIS infrastructure built in Azure. That environment includes extensive use of ArcGIS Enterprise, Azure services, multiple virtual machine workstations, ArcGIS Server sites, Microsoft SQL Server databases, and a range of workflows, feature services, and REST endpoints hosting client data.
For Municipal GIS Partners Inc. (MGP), scaling that infrastructure meant finding the right partner to support their growth.
Where Blue Raster Came In
MGP first engaged Blue Raster to deploy a monitoring solution for their GIS infrastructure that could shed light on server resources, virtual machine performance, database health, and overall system performance. That initial engagement centered on system assessment, monitoring, and recommendations.
Blue Raster deployed Zabbix to establish visibility into system performance, built out a comprehensive architecture and network diagram capturing MGP's full GIS infrastructure along with its dependencies and integrations, and reviewed MGP's organizational policies across ArcGIS Enterprise and Azure, including their use of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
The engagement concluded with a recommendations document outlining a path toward system optimization and long-term GIS sustainability.
Optimizing MGP's GIS Infrastructure
With a clear picture of the environment in hand, Blue Raster moved into a second engagement focused on immediate remediation of services and tools in its GIS infrastructure. This included resizing file servers to resolve memory constraints, improving virtual machine backup policies, resolving SQL Server issues, and adjusting system capacity.
Blue Raster deployed ArcGIS Monitor, enabled Azure Backups, and tuned the system to address the issues identified in the initial assessment, setting MGP's infrastructure up for long-term success.
That work also marked the beginning of ongoing GIS managed services support, including incident response and alerting for critical infrastructure events, periodic review of SQL Server metrics, log review through ArcGIS Monitor, proactive monitoring of server health and availability, oversight of SQL Server agent jobs, disk capacity monitoring, and a monthly cadence of system patching and tuning.
Most recently, Blue Raster completed a third engagement designing a new VDI solution architecture, including sizing, licensing, and infrastructure requirements, after the operating system on MGP's existing VDI infrastructure approached end of life.
Blue Raster developed a deployment and migration plan aligned with Esri best practices, configured the new environment, user profiles, applications, and access policies, and conducted acceptance testing to validate performance and usability before executing the cutover and decommissioning the legacy infrastructure.
How Blue Raster Supports GIS Managed Services
Across each of these engagements, Blue Raster brought together deep ArcGIS expertise with hands-on GIS infrastructure troubleshooting, from Azure architecture and SQL Server administration to VDI design and ongoing system monitoring.
That combination allows Blue Raster to support clients like MGP not just at the moment of crisis, but through the full lifecycle of a GIS environment, from assessment and remediation to proactive, ongoing managed services that keep systems healthy, secure, and ready to scale.
Ready to Strengthen Your GIS Infrastructure?
Whether you're deploying or scaling an existing ArcGIS Enterprise environment, need a health check on your current system, or are planning a VDI migration, Blue Raster's GIS managed services team is ready to help. Reach out to learn how we can support your organization's next stage of growth.
