Audience: Administrators, GIS specialists
Understand the structure of GIS services and the primary service types available for displaying and interacting with geospatial data.
Related articles
Service structure and capabilities
A GIS service makes geographic information accessible on a map. Services consist of one or more layers, which represent specific slices of spatial information (such as assets, boundaries, or operational areas) that you can layer onto your map view.
Common GIS service types
Different GIS service types provide specific capabilities depending on your operational needs:
-
Map services: Render pre-styled map images or vector data for basic display, visualization, and feature identification.
-
Feature services: Expose vector features and underlying attribute data, allowing users to query, select, and edit geographic data directly on the map.
-
Geoprocessing services: Execute spatial analysis tasks, algorithms, or complex processing scripts on server infrastructure and return the results to the map.
-
Tiled / Image services: Serve static raster basemaps or satellite imagery in pre-rendered image tiles for fast visual performance across large regions.
What's next
-
To set up and configure a new service, see Configure a service.