Standard and GeoAnalytics Tools feature analysis comparison—Portal for ArcGIS

Feature analysis options

Beginning at ArcGIS 10.5, ArcGIS Enterprise can provide multiple ways to perform analysis. The tools you use to perform analysis will depend on the size of your data, the type of data, and the analysis you want to complete. For example, imagine you want to calculate drive time areas for emergency shelter locations in a county, or you want to look at changes over time in millions of records of 911 calls. Both of these scenarios can be analyzed using ArcGIS Enterprise, but the type of analysis you want to perform will determine what feature analysis toolset you use.

There are several criteria that can determine which feature analysis toolset to use. The standard analysis tools became available at ArcGIS 10.4, and GeoAnalytics Tools are available as of ArcGIS 10.5 with ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server. Standard analysis tools run on a single machine and are optimal for your standard sized data. They have capabilities that can answer a wide range of questions.

GeoAnalytics Tools are optimized for large datasets and run analysis across multiple machines. GeoAnalytics Tools are focused on summarizing and analyzing large datasets in both time and space. The first criterion in deciding which tools to use is the size of your data. In addition to the size of the data, there are differences between the number of tools available and the capabilities of each tool for standard or big data analysis. The following is a summary of the differences:

GeoAnalytics Tools take advantage of multiple machines to complete larger analysis.
Standard analysis has more tools available.
GeoAnalytics Tools have a larger focus on time in addition to space.
Tools that are similar between standard and GeoAnalytics Tools may have different tool parameters. Those tool-level differences are discussed in Feature analysis tool differences.

Standard and GeoAnalytics Tools differences

Standard analysis and GeoAnalytics Tools have many similar tools. The following tables outline the tools available in standard and GeoAnalytics Tools by categories. To set up these tools, see Configure the portal to perform analysis for standard analysis tools and Set up ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server for GeoAnalytics Tools.