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Frequently Asked Questions

Hosting and Deployment 🖥️​

Why should I choose OmniSpatial as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering?​

The OmniSpatial technology stack was specifically designed to be ran in a container orchestration platform to offer production-grade High Availability (HA) services with optimal resource consumption (see the "Why does OmniSpatial run on Kubernetes" section for more details). Additionally, because OmniSpatial is a Progressive Web Application, that runs in a user’s browser, there is no downside to running the application from a SaaS offering rather than hosting the application on-premises. On-premises data can still be consumed without any additional steps needed (see the "Does OmniSpatial require access through the firewall to access on-premises data?" section for more details). Users will be able to access data just as they would if the application was hosted within their environment. By using the OmniSpatial SaaS offering, clients receive the following benefits:

  • A production-grade scalable platform, pre-configured, tuned, and ready for immediate use
  • Encrypted TCP network communication over HTTPS
  • Optimal resource consumption with discounted cloud vendor pricing (due to scale)
  • Automated backup and recovery
  • Load balancing and performance tuning
  • Self-healing production-grade environment
  • Regular incremental updates with automated rollback capabilities
  • Scalable storage orchestration
  • No need to involve your organization’s IT department to purchase, maintain, and tune hardware and services to support OmniSpatial

Why does OmniSpatial run on Kubernetes?​

Although OmniSpatial does not have to run on Kubernetes, it is the recommended platform for deploying and scaling the application as well as the chosen platform for the OmniSpatial SaaS solution.

Using Kubernetes, allows the application’s services, database, and resources to scale in an automated fashion, with self-healing capability. Among other things, Kubernetes makes possible; infinite scalability, zero-downtime maintenance, easy configuration and deployment, self-healing capability, storage orchestration, observability, load balancing, and more. Although OmniSpatial's technical architecture is designed to be flexible and interoperable (see diagram below), the technology stack was specifically chosen to perform well in a HA micro-services architecture, allowing for continuous integration and continuous deployment. This system ensures that users get regular incremental low-impact updates that get deployed in a blue green deployment model, with automated rollbacks and observability. Although it is possible to deploy and run the OmniSpatial stack outside of Kubernetes, it is highly recommended that a container orchestration platform is used, such as Kubernetes, for a production-grade instance.

architecture overview

Can OmniSpatial be ran on-premises?​

Yes, OmniSpatial can be deployed in an on-premises environment or on any cloud vendor’s platform (ex: Amazon, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.). Although not required, OmniSpatial is designed to be ran and scaled in a container orchestration environment, such as Kubernetes (see the "Why does OmniSpatial run on Kubernetes" section for more details). Although it is possible to deploy and run the OmniSpatial stack outside of Kubernetes, it is highly recommended that a container orchestration platform is used, such as Kubernetes, for a production-grade instance. Rizing can provide guidance on non-Kubernetes deployments, but highly recommends using Kubernetes as the deployment mechanism. Rizing’s core offering of OmniSpatial is as a Software as a Service (SaaS) package. Rizing highly recommends this option for various reasons. Check out the "Why should I choose OmniSpatial as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering?" and "Does OmniSpatial require access through the firewall to access on-premises data?" sections for more details.

Does OmniSpatial require access through the firewall to access on-premises data?​

No! OmniSpatial is a Progressive Web Application which runs in the user's web browser (from a desktop, laptop, or mobile device). As long as the device is on the organization’s network, then the application will be able to view and consume data within the environment. No organization data is ever stored in the OmniSpatial SaaS environment. Only OmniSpatial specific data, such as user's bookmarks, user settings, configuration packages, etc. are stored within the SaaS infrastructure.

Data 💾​

Does OmniSpatial store sensitive data?​

Omni does not store or process any organization or sensitive data (including GIS data, SAP data, etc.). The only data that is stored on Omni servers is application configuration and user resources (like personal settings, saved bookmarks, etc.).

SAP Service and Asset Manager (SSAM) 📱​

How does OmniSpatial connect to data when ran in SSAM?​

OmniSpatial maintains all of it's native capabilities to connect to various data services when embedded within other applications. However, in the standard OmniSpatial/SSAM configuration SAP data is typically loaded from the native SSAM application and handed over to Omni for display and interaction, within the given session. All other data services (such as ArcGIS Enterprise) will be transferred via standard web services (TCP/HTTPS communication). No data is ever processed or stored by Omni backend services. All data is retrieved and interacted with on client devices (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, etc.).

architecture overview

ArcGIS 🌎​

Does OmniSpatial requires a service account to authenticate to ArcGIS?​

Omni authenticates with ArcGIS through an OAuth2 workflow (same as any other secured services). When an Omni user tries to consume data from ArcGIS Enterprise, Omni will initiate ArcGIS Enterprise’s OAuth2 authentication workflow to allow users to authenticate with ArcGIS through the standard authentication mechanism configured within ArcGIS Enterprise (typically Single sign on and/or built in user accounts).