Case Study: Florida Department of Environmental Protection achieves better environmental threat response with Microsoft Corporation and Esri ArcGIS on Azure

Esri ArcGIS on Azure helps Florida better prepare for environmental threats

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection needed to modernize its GIS database storage and scale access to environmental and sinkhole data as public demand surged after major storms. As the state’s lead environmental agency, it was struggling with slow, inaccessible web servers during peak traffic and needed a more reliable way to manage and share mission-critical information. Microsoft Corporation’s Azure platform, used with Esri ArcGIS, was selected to support this effort.

Microsoft Corporation and Esri implemented ArcGIS on Azure, moving FDEP’s services to the cloud and enabling mobile data collection, digital storage, and dynamic public data sharing. The result was greater reliability and accessibility for emergency response and day-to-day operations, with FDEP’s web traffic growing from about 2.5 million requests at migration to an average of 5 million hits per day in 2019. The new system also reduced staff time for inventory updates by about half and lowered costs by replacing paper forms and GPS units with mobile apps.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Kevin Nguyen

GIS Infrastructure Systems Project Consultant