Summary
ArcIMS and ArcSDE appear to be a robust environment for distributed data
SDE promises interesting opportunities for institutional data sharing (outside of IMS)
Challenge for sharing large and complex databases is design as much as technology
Notes:
The use of SDE and IMS to integrate distributed spatial and tabular databases for the MIDCARB project has proven to be quite robust.
Moreover, the ease of sharing spatial data across institutions using this technology promises new opportunities for natural resource organizations.
While there are technical challenges for implementing such a system, the greatest challenge is in creating a design that is clear and easy to use.