Feature analysis options
ArcGIS Enterprise offers 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 became available at ArcGIS 10.5 with ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server. Standard analysis tools run on a single machine and are optimal for your standard-sized data. These tools 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, 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 the capability 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.
Summarize data
| Tool | Standard analysis | GeoAnalytics Tools |
|---|---|---|
Aggregate Points |  | |
Build Multi-Variable Grid | | |
Describe Dataset | | |
Join Features | | |
Reconstruct Tracks | | |
Summarize Attributes | | |
Summarize Nearby | | |
Summarize Within | | |
Summarize Center and Dispersion | |
Find locations
| Tool | Standard analysis | GeoAnalytics Tools |
|---|---|---|
Choose Best Facilities | | |
Create Viewshed | | |
Create Watersheds | | |
Derive New Locations | | |
Detect Incidents | | |
Find Centroids | | |
Find Dwell Locations | | |
Find Existing Locations | | |
Find Similar Locations | | |
Geocode Location from Table | | |
Trace Downstream | |
Data enrichment
| Tool | Standard analysis | GeoAnalytics Tools |
|---|---|---|
Enrich from Multi-Variable Grid | | |
Enrich Layer | |
Analyze patterns
| Tool | Standard analysis | GeoAnalytics Tools |
|---|---|---|
Calculate Density | | |
Find Hot Spots | | |
Find Outliers | | |
Find Point Clusters | | |
Forest-based Classification and Regression | | |
Generalized Linear Regression | | |
Geographically Weighted Regression | | |
Interpolate Points | | |
Create Space Time Cube | |
Use proximity
| Tool | Standard analysis | GeoAnalytics Tools |
|---|---|---|
Create Buffers | | |
Create Drive-Time Areas | | |
Find Nearest | | |
Plan Routes | | |
Connect Origins to Destination | |
Manage data
| Tool | Standard analysis | GeoAnalytics Tools |
|---|---|---|
Append Data | | |
Calculate Field | | |
Clip Layer | | |
Copy to Data Store | | |
Dissolve Boundaries | | |
Extract Data | | |
Generate Tessellations | | |
Merge Layers | | |
Overlay Layers | | |