GISquirrel for ArcGIS and SQl Server or PostGIS

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Reasons to use GISquirrel

What benefits does GISquirrel bring?

You are probably holding your spatial data in shapefiles and personal/file geodatabases. GISquirrel stores the same data in a SQL Server or PostGreSQL database. This brings...

Better performance over networks.
Multi-user editing with a Basic licence.
Easier integration of GIS with other database applications.
Ability to use other GIS clients on the same data (e.g. for web publishing).
Adherence to OGC standards.
More secure and sophisticated backup and restore facilities.
Better organisation of your data.

Will my data be safe and accessible after loading into GISquirrel?

GISquirrel stores your geometry data using the geometry data type in SQL Server or PostGIS, which can be viewed, edited and exported with a wide range of software. In ArcGIS you can easily export GISquirrel layers to other formats. And storing your important data in a server-based RDBMS provides much better security and scalability than file-based datasets.

How does GISquirrel compare with ArcSDE or ArcGIS Server?

GISquirrel can be compared to ArcGIS Server Basic (formerly known as ArcSDE) - it gives you enterprise multiuser geodatabase capabilities. GISquirrel brings several advantages, especially in user-friendliness, flexibility, interoperability and cost. GISquirrel enables server-side (database) geoprocessing as well as client-side mapping and editing, and does all this very effectively at minimum cost. However, note that GISquirrel does not manage raster data or provide web development tools.

How does GISquirrel compare with ST-Links SpatialKit?

GISquirrel has several key advantages over ST-Links SpatialKit - please read our detailed comparative review.

What kind of performance can I expect with GISquirrel?

This depends on a variety of network/server conditions, but we generally find that an GISquirrel layer from a shared SQL Server performs better than a shapefile/geodatabase on a shared fileserver. The performance benefits increase the more users you have.

Why is it called GISquirrel?

Because it's a GIS tool, connects to SQL databases, and it's lightweight, fast and friendly. And we had to change the name from ArcSquirrel!

Can GISquirrel data be used with other GIS products?

Yes! Whether you are using SQL Server 2008 or PostGIS, data created with ArcGIS and GISquirrel can be used with any GIS client that reads SQL Server geometry data (such as GeoServer, Precisely MapInfo Pro, Manifold, MapServer, etc).