Recap of Blue Raster at South Central Arc User Group (SCAUG) 2026: presenting, exhibiting, and engaging the GIS community. May 28, 2026 Nate Lickteig Blue Raster was proud to attend the 36th Annual South Central Arc User Group (SCAUG) Conference in Corpus Christi, Texas from May 4 through 7, 2026. Held at the Omni Corpus Christi Hotel, the SCAUG conference brought together GIS professionals from across the region for four days of sessions, discussions, and hands-on learning. As both an exhibitor and a presenter, Blue Raster came ready to engage, sharing lessons from client work in the region and joining conversations about how organizations are building stronger, more sustainable GIS programs. From the exhibit floor to the presentation stage, it was an opportunity to hear what challenges were top of mind, exchange ideas with peers, and bring real-world perspective from its work with clients like San Patricio County, Texas. Exhibiting at SCAUG. In the exhibit hall, Blue Raster, LLC spoke with GIS professionals focused on modernizing systems, improving workflows, and expanding how GIS supports their organizations. Those conversations reinforced a common theme: teams are looking for practical solutions that deliver value now and can grow with them over time. Presenting with San Patricio County, TX. One of the highlights of the conference was presenting alongside Colton Landgrebe from San Patricio County on "Building a Sustainable GIS Program in San Patricio County." The session focused on what it takes to grow GIS in a practical, sustainable way - from building momentum early to adapting as organizational needs evolve. Presenting with a client made the discussion especially valuable because it grounded the conversation in real experience and shared outcomes. Blue Raster, LLC focused on the day-to-day work behind sustainable GIS growth, including: * Building early momentum * Responding to changing organizational needs * Planning for long-term program success These are the kinds of conversations that make events like SCAUG valuable because they move beyond product features and into real implementation. Sharing this story with the broader GIS community gave Blue Raster, LLC the opportunity to show what strong collaboration can achieve when strategy and execution stay aligned. Looking ahead. Blue Raster, LLC left SCAUG 2026 encouraged by the conversations Blue Raster, LLC had and the ideas Blue Raster, LLC shared. From the exhibit hall to its presentation with San Patricio County, the event highlighted the value of practical collaboration and the continued momentum around sustainable GIS programs. What stood out most was how many organizations are at a similar inflection point - ready to move beyond reactive GIS support and toward programs that are intentionally built, well-resourced, and connected to real business outcomes. That alignment between what Blue Raster, LLC heard in Corpus Christi and what Blue Raster, LLC see in its day-to-day client work gives Blue Raster, LLC a lot of confidence in where this community is headed. Ready to transform your GIS workflows? Whether you're modernizing existing systems, expanding GIS across departments, or planning for long-term growth, Blue Raster partners with organizations to turn GIS strategy into practical, scalable solutions. From application development and system modernization to program planning and implementation support, Blue Raster, LLC help teams build GIS programs that deliver lasting value.

Improving ArcGIS Enterprise performance for Orange County, Virginia with ArcGIS Monitor. When a public-facing GIS application slows down, users notice immediately. Administrators, however, often don't see the warning signs until performance issues have already begun affecting staff and the public. For many state and local governments, the challenge isn't expertise or effort, it's visibility. Without real-time insight into ArcGIS Enterprise performance, even well-managed systems can be difficult to monitor proactively. This was the case for Orange County, Virginia, which relies on a robust ArcGIS Enterprise environment to support both internal operations and high-traffic public applications. The challenge: identifying performance bottlenecks in real time. Orange County, Virginia maintains a large ArcGIS Enterprise deployment with numerous services running concurrently. While most services experience moderate usage, one parcel service receives the majority of incoming requests and supports a heavily used public-facing application. Over time, this service began exhibiting long load times, request timeouts, and inconsistent performance, issues that directly impacted staff workflows and the public user experience. When problems surfaced, troubleshooting required Orange County's GIS Administrator to manually review ArcGIS Server logs and interpret error messages after the fact, often under pressure. What the county needed was a way to understand system behavior as issues were unfolding, not hours later. The solution: purpose-built monitoring with ArcGIS Monitor. Blue Raster partnered with Orange County to implement ArcGIS Monitor with a focus on turning raw system metrics into actionable insight. Rather than overwhelming the GIS administrator with data, the goal was to surface the information that mattered most, clearly and immediately. Together, Blue Raster, LLC designed a series of custom dashboards and analysis views aligned with how the county actually operates. These views were built to quickly answer essential questions: * Are services responding normally? * Is the infrastructure under strain? * Is its most important service being overwhelmed? To support this, the solution included multiple tailored views, each with a clear purpose: * Infrastructure analysis views showing host CPU usage, memory utilization, storage usage, and overall network activity. * Performance views tracking running service instances, response times, and failed requests. In addition, custom indicators and alerts were configured to flag site outages, connectivity issues, service degradation, and infrastructure stress, bringing attention to potential problems before they escalated into outages. The result: proactive monitoring and faster response. By tailoring ArcGIS Monitor to Orange County's specific priorities, Blue Raster helped transform monitoring from a reactive task into a strategic capability. The county now has greater confidence in its ArcGIS Enterprise environment, faster troubleshooting workflows, and improved support for the mission critical services relied on by both internal staff and the public. Added benefit: monitoring against county slas. Like many local governments, Orange County, Virginia needed a clear, defensible way to measure system uptime against established service-level agreements (SLAs). The county maintains an internal requirement that its ArcGIS Enterprise environment achieve greater than 95% uptime, with performance reviewed on both a monthly and annual basis. As part of the ArcGIS Monitor implementation, Blue Raster configured a custom indicator to track total downtime in minutes and automatically calculate uptime percentages over time. This approach eliminates manual log reviews and provides the GIS Administrator with a clear, at-a-glance view of system availability and historical trends. The result is improved transparency, stronger accountability, and increased confidence that ArcGIS Enterprise performance consistently aligns with county standards and expectations. Ready to optimize your ArcGIS Enterprise environment? Blue Raster helps state and local governments like Orange County, Virginia gain clarity and control over their ArcGIS Enterprise environments. Whether you're managing dozens of services or a single mission-critical application, Blue Raster, LLC can help you monitor smarter, respond faster, and plan more effectively.

Advancing regional planning organizations with strategic GIS and ArcGIS Enterprise services. As an Esri Gold Partner with the Esri State and Local Government Specialty, Blue Raster utilizes its expertise to provide strategic GIS support to regional and local government agencies and departments, helping them maximize the power of their GIS data and infrastructure. The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) serves as the regional planning organization for the central Puget Sound area, supporting transportation, growth management, and economic development initiatives across multiple counties. GIS is central to PSRC's work, helping staff analyze regional data, plan infrastructure projects, visualize growth trends, and make informed decisions. To help them meet their goals, Blue Raster has partnered with PSRC to provide strategic GIS support and ArcGIS Enterprise managed services that advance and sustain their Esri-based GIS program. As the agency navigates a major technology transition, Blue Raster delivers project-based initiatives, on-call support, and ongoing managed services, helping PSRC modernize its GIS infrastructure, adopt cloud-based solutions, and refine a long-term technology strategy to support staff across the organization. Assessing the GIS environment. Its team evaluated PSRC's existing GIS environment, IT infrastructure, and user requirements to design a cloud-based GIS architecture that meets the agency's needs. Subsequently, Blue Raster deployed ArcGIS Enterprise 11.1 in PSRC's Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment and recently upgraded it to ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5. The upgraded platform provides faster, more reliable access to spatial data and applications, supporting efficient analysis, project planning, and informed decision-making for operations across the Puget Sound region. Ongoing strategic guidance and managed services. Blue Raster continues to provide strategic guidance as PSRC evolves its GIS program. Blue Raster, LLC advise on ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise deployments, help refine the agency's 3- to 5-year GIS strategy, and plan for future Esri technologies and licensing needs. Its managed services include proactive system monitoring with Zabbix, virtual machine administration, optimization of system resources, and ArcGIS Pro workstation support. Blue Raster, LLC also set up virtual ArcGIS Pro workstations, giving staff seamless access to GIS tools from anywhere. On-call support and troubleshooting ensure a reliable, high-performing GIS environment, allowing staff to focus on delivering results for the region. Delivering scalable GIS solutions for regional planning. PSRC benefits from a cloud-based GIS platform that is secure, scalable, and tailored for regional and local government operations. Blue Raster's strategic support and managed services empower PSRC staff to make data-driven decisions, streamline workflows, and continue advancing regional planning initiatives across the Puget Sound. Learn how Blue Raster can provide strategic GIS support and ArcGIS Enterprise managed services for your organization. Contact Blue Raster, LLC today to explore solutions that empower regional and local government teams to operate efficiently and make data-driven decisions.