More information
Features
General
Is Google Earth Enterprise a site-wide deployment of Google Earth?
No, Google Earth Enterprise is intended for organizations that have large geospatial data stores. Google Earth Pro offers an enterprise wide installation method aproppiate for this situation where an entire organization wants access to Google Earth on the Internet.
Will Google host my globe?
Google Earth Enterprise is designed to run on your own hosting environment on your own servers. Please see our Partner Solutions Marketplace for a list of partners who may be able to assist with hosting: http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/search?categoryId=16&orderBy=rating
Does Google offer or provide professional services?
Google trains and supports several authorized Google Enterprise partners. Our partners will work with you to ensure you have a fully working system and all the tools necessary to build a successful and user friendly GIS experience, as well as the training required to understand the power and full capabilities of Google Earth Enterprise. Our partners can also be contracted to provide any additional professional services that are required for your organization.
Does Google provide hardware with Google Earth Enterprise?
Google Earth Enterprise is a software-only deliverable. Our resellers can quote hardware prices or you can purchase your own hardware. Google Earth Enterprise runs on commodity x86_64 hardware.
What levels of support are available?
For current Google Earth Enterprise customers there is email support and phone support for downtime.
How is Google Earth Enterprise licensed?
The Google Earth Enterprise software has flexible Enterprise licensing, available on a perpetual or annual basis. Please contact our sales team for further information.
Can mashups be created with Google Earth Enterprise?
Yes. Google Earth Enterprise exposes your organizations data through the Google Maps and Google Earth APIs, letting you easily build mashups and embed your content into portals and other services.
Can I build globes for other organizations?
Yes. Google Earth globes and maps are self-contained and can be moved from one hosting environment to another.
Will Google build a globe or map for my organization?
Several Google Earth Enterprise partner organizations are capable of providing globe-building services for your organization. Please see our Partner Solutions Marketplace for a list of partners who may deliver these services.
How can our organization partner with Google?
Please see details at the Google Enterprise Partner Page.
What industries can benefit from Google Earth Enterprise?
Any industry that needs to visualize geographic data is applicable. Our customers
currently comprise communities including:Intel, Military, Mining, Gas&Electric,
Geological Development, Real Estate, Financial, Aeronautics, Aviation, and Federal, State
and Local governments.
Any industry that has access to its own imagery and vector data could use Google Earth
Enterprise.
Who are the existing Google Earth Enterprise Parter organizations?
A list of existing Google Earth Enterprise Partners may be viewed at the Google Enterprise Partner Page.
Technical
Can I authenticate users?
Yes, Google Earth Enterprise supports user authentication. The Google Earth Server supports htdigest, htaccess and LDAP. The server can also be configured to require x.509 certificates from the users. The DoD CAC card can also be used to authenticate to the Google Earth Server.
Can I run HTTPS?
Yes, Google Earth Enterprise supports HTTPS the same way that any other web server would support HTTPS. The system administrator needs to install an x.509 server certificate and then enable HTTPS.
What user authentication protocols are supported?
Google Earth Enterprise supports several standard user authentications directly from the Server software, as well as integration with other network-wide authentication services such as LDAP.
How much storage space is required for Google Earth Enterprise?
The amount of storage space needed to build and host customized 3D and 2D globes will depend on how much source data are imported, scaling from several gigabytes to many terabytes. The main driver for disk space is the amount of imagery that is added to the globe. A simple proof of concept server can be installed on less than 10GB of storage space.
What operating systems are supported?
Both of the server-based software components, Fusion and Earth Server, run on Linux. The client runs on Windows, Linux or Mac. The server-based software will run on Suse Linux Enterprise Server, Red Hat Enterprise or Ubuntu LTS.
What data is supported within the Google Earth Enterprise software?
Image and Terrain
GeoTIFF, Erdas IMG, JPEG2000, MrSID
TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BIL, BIP
DTED, USGS SDTS DEM, ASCII DEM
Vector
ESRI Shapefile (.SHP)
MapInfo Tab (.TAB)
Comma Separated Values (.CSV)
KML streaming
Support for KML
Google SketchUp Models
Create SuperOverlay Images
What are the hardware requirements for Google Earth Enterprise?
Minimum 2 dual-core Intel or AMD CPUs
Minimum 4GB RAM; 8 GB RAM per core recommended
1 Ethernet Network Interface Controller (Gigabit ethernet recommended)
Supported Linux operating systems:
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server version 10 (64-bit)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, versions 4 and 5 (64-bit)
Ubuntu 8.04 (64-bit)
What are the features of Google Earth Enterprise Server software?
- Rapid, secure dissemination of your organization's geospatial data, with support for authentication and HTTPS.
- Access to your data through the Google Earth Client, the Maps API, and the Earth API.
- Process your entire data archive, including historical imagery, bathymetry, and 3D models.
- Serve your data efficiently to tens of users...or hundreds of thousands.
- Expose your vector data as fully searchable from within the Google Earth client and through an API.
- Host any number of globes or maps at once.
- Create truly portable solutions for users in the field with limited communications.
How much network bandwidth is needed?
The amount of bandwidth required will be influenced by the total number of users and user behavior viewing the globe. An average 100 kb/s bandwidth per user has been observed with users accessing data with Google Earth EC.
How can I learn more about Google Earth Enterprise?
Visit the Google Earth Enterprise help center.
Product
How does Google Earth Enterprise compare to ESRI ArcServer?
ArcServer is a back-end database for managing and updating your GIS data and for publishing layers. Google Earth Enterprise is a visualization system for rapidly and securely bringing your data to your end users.
Is Google Earth Enterprise intended to replace my exisiting GIS system?
Google Earth Enterprise is a visualization and discovery tool. There are many successful Google Earth Enterprise deployments where the customer implements Google Earth Enterprise with Oracle Spatial, ESRI and MapInfo systems in order to make the geospatial data readily available to more people within the organization or business.
How often do I get imagery updates?
If your users are connecting to the public Google Earth or Google Maps API, data updates will be distributed regularly. If your users are connecting to custom globes comprised of internal imagery the users will be able to see the new imagery on the map once you publish the map or globe.
Can Google Earth Enterprise leverage imagery that I've already imported into ESRI or Oracle Spatial Databases or leverage their display rules for vector data?
Google Earth Enterprise can consume this imagery but it will require either the source data or an export from your current Spatial Databases to build your Google Earth Enterprise globes and maps. There also exists third party support for importing ESRI display rules into Google Earth Enterprise.
What analytical tools does Google Earth Enterprise provide?
Google Earth Enterprise is primarily a visualization system. Through API calls, search tabs and network links, the Google Earth Enterprise Client, the Google Maps API and the Google Plugin API can make calls to back-end analysis tools and then display the results.
Does Google Earth Enterprise support WMS?
Data layers from a WMS server may be viewed with Google Earth client. The Google Earth Enterprise Server does not act as a WMS server.
Can I use GEE to mashup my own content with Google's content?
Yes. With 2D maps you can use the Javascript API's to pull image tiles from Google in addition to vector layers from your internal server. For 3D, your users will need to connect to the Google servers and then simultaneously connect to your Enterprise server.
Does the Google Earth Portable solution allow you to use Google's imagery?
No, the Google Earth Enterprise portable solution is intended to be used in situations where your employees need to access your internal imagery and mapping data. Google does not provide customers with Google licensed data for portable use. Google has many partners that provide custom Google Earth Enterprise portable solutions with high resolution imagery.