Jim Barry’s views:

Software/ Application Development in GIS - An overview.
It is certainly an exciting time to be part of the geospatial development community. Quantitative improvements in the capabilities of hardware, while at the same time declining in the cost of access and operation, continue to race against our human creativity of design and function. Qualitatively, new platforms have become available. Years ago, many GIS application developers designed applications for heavy client desktops and workstations. Later, the capabilities of GIS started to weave their way into larger enterprise implementations. Today, the web is the platform of significant growth. All of these platforms still exist and have their strengths, and thus developers have more options than ever before.

Much in the same way geography connects us and describes our spatial relationships, the web as a platform for application development is a great way to connect us in our use of geospatial information. GIS on the web for developers is a combination of services and the APIs used to consume them. We certainly have come a long way from applications installed and running on separate disconnected desktops.

How different or similar is this to general IT App/ Software development?
Including GIS into general IT applications does not fundamentally change the development process. The components of GIS (software, hardware, data, people, and methods) are in parallel to the components of Information Technology as a whole. However, to best integrate spatial data and GIS capabilities into an IT strategy requires professionals who understand what GIS technology can do and how to make it work. This knowledge is needed at all phases of a application design lifecycle, so that you end up with accurate and high-quality results, and so that the end users of that system do not necessarily need this specialized knowledge.

Your view points on the growing popularity of GIS and the opportunities for IT companies to explore this domain.
As we know, IT is about leveraging computing power to process data in order to make effective decisions faster and with higher confidence than any other way. The usefulness and ubiquity of computing systems have grown proportionally to the growth of their capabilities. The growth of GIS parallels this trend because it is part of IT. Without well-managed, accurate, and complete spatial data, and without the GIS tools and techniques for analyzing and using that data, an overall IT implementation strategy is incomplete. GIS adds the "where" to IT. One would be hard pressed to come up with problems that can be solved with IT that do not have some spatial component to them.

About the relationship between GIS technology and the IT infrastructure.
Over the past decade especially, we have witnessed a significant increase in the integration of spatial information with other types of information. Certainly it has now gone to the point where many of us no longer think that GIS as 'this' and IT as 'that'. Advances in the interoperability of GIS and its use of IT standards is making the collection, management, and processing of geospatial data seamless in one's IT strategy. ESRI provides a generic software platform that not only manages this geographic information, but enhances an IT implementation by adding to it powerful tools for spatial analysis and display. For users of ESRI technology, this means compatibility and interoperability with major enterprise business systems.

Top five verticals that use your Developer Resources - including the areas of growth
ESRI technology is used and trusted in just about every major industry. ArcGIS is a world leading platform for professional GIS, and at the same time a leading platform for geospatial developers designing and building applications to serve particular needs. As our company name describes, ESRI's roots are in applications related to the environment and use of natural resources, that is, the development and use of GIS to help us all be better stewards of our planet and the life upon it. Other industries growing their use of GIS are most expectedly those industries which have the most to gain by including the geospatial component, or the most to lose by excluding it. Most notably these have included public utilities, government and public safety, commercial and industrial business, as well as the defence industry.

What are the offerings from your company for developers?
ESRI designs and builds GIS software which contain the tools needed to collect, process, manage, analyze, and display spatial information. Most users of our technology platform use our out-of-the-box tools. Running parallel to this is our commitment to developers, since using GIS can be made even more powerful and efficient if it can be tailored to specific needs and workflows. ESRI continues to expose industry-standard APIs to make not only customized mapping solutions, but also be able to embed GIS functionality as a component of a larger designed system.

While users of our standard applications can use these APIs, we believe that the best way for developers to have their own personal access to the ArcGIS platform is with an annual subscription to the ESRI Developer Network (EDN). First and foremost, the EDN program includes developer licenses for the entire ArcGIS product line. With it, you can include GIS into the design and development of applications from the smallest mobile devices to the largest enterprise systems, and every desktop, workstation, and server in between. But another important part of the EDN program is the online resources and developer community resources. Developers’ helping other developers is a way to leverage our collective creativity.