An active, critical ArcGIS Online organization often supports a mix of workloads within a single organization, including:
Public-facing applications
Internal editing and analysis
Mobile and offline field operations
Automated processes
Self-service mapping
Each of these workloads consumes resources, and all workloads within an organization share the same resource pool.
Workload separation is a design approach focused on the optimal distribution of computing resources to handle different workloads or sets of activity by consistent user groups. Many organizations already apply this concept in ArcGIS Enterprise by isolating processing workloads onto separate server sites, separating imagery from map services, and creating dedicated systems for specific user groups or applications. The same principle applies to ArcGIS Online: separating critical workloads into dedicated individual ArcGIS Online organizations ensures that unrelated workloads are not competing for resources.
Organizational workload separation can be used to address a number of use cases, many of which are described below.
Critical workloads coexist with resource-intensive activities — Heavy editing, analysis, automated processes, mobile data collection and sync operations all consume Feature Data Store compute resources. When these workflows are active alongside time-sensitive critical workloads, the cumulative load is more likely to exceed available capacity and affect all consumers.
The organization supports workloads with different availability requirements — For example, an evacuation status map that serves as a primary source of information during a high-stakes event may have a different tolerance for degradation than an internal status reporting dashboard. Separating these workloads allows infrastructure decisions to be made according to each workload’s specific requirements.
Compliance or security policies require content separation — Organizations managing sensitive data alongside broadly shared or public content may need distinct organizational boundaries to enforce governance policies, restrict publishing privileges, and control sharing.
Multiple departments or programs share a single organization — When a single ArcGIS Online organization serves multiple teams, a spike in heavy usage from one group (from a planned training exercise, a large mobile deployment, a new data processing job, or a configuration outside of best practices) can impact the performance experienced by others.
Field operations and offline data collection — Organizations with large mobile deployments (100+ users syncing simultaneously via Field Maps, Survey123, or QuickCapture) generate significant system load during sync windows and offline data collection preparation. This non-cacheable demand competes directly with other workloads for Feature Data Store compute.
The organization needs clear resource visibility — Isolating a critical workload into its own organization means the Feature Data Store usage reflects only that workload. This makes it significantly easier to establish baselines, identify bottlenecks, correlate usage with specific operations, and determine when a premium infrastructure upgrade is warranted.
There can be many benefits to using workload separation, several are described.
A dedicated organization can be configured with tailored security and access control, including:
A focused set of user accounts
Restricted publishing privileges
Controlled sharing policies
This can reduce the risk of unauthorized changes to critical content. For public-facing solutions, this means limiting who can modify what the public sees. For internal and operational solutions, this means protecting production data from accidental overwrites or misconfiguration.
Each ArcGIS Online organization has its own allocation of Feature Data Store resources. Separating workloads ensures that query demand, editing load, and sync operations from one workload type do not compete with another type, potentially improving the performance and reliability of both organizations.
Premium Feature Data Store and Premium Feature Services subscriptions apply per-organization. Workload separation allows an organization to invest in premium infrastructure only where additional resources are needed, rather than upgrading a mixed-use organization to support the demands of many workloads of various criticality levels.
When a critical workload is isolated, content and users are reduced, which streamlines troubleshooting efforts. Additionally, the Feature Data Store usage charts may be easier to interpret, making it easier to establish baselines, identify bottlenecks, and determine if a Premium Feature Data Store upgrade and/or configuration adjustments are warranted.
There may also be trade-offs to using workload separation, several are described.
A separate ArcGIS Online organization requires its own subscription that includes user types, credits, and if indicated, premium extensions. At minimum, the organization needs at least one Creator user type to administer the organization. If additional Creator user types are needed for content management, the associated administrative responsibilities increase. Organizations should evaluate the benefits of workload separation against the potential additional costs in terms of time and effort involved.
To leverage the isolated resources within the dedicated organization, critical content such as layers, maps, and apps must be hosted within that organization. This may require:
Content duplication
Cross-organization data flows
Users working across two organizations during events: publishing and managing data in the critical operations organization while using apps in the internal organization
Partnered collaboration and other automation solutions can assist with these cross-organization workflows, but organizations should assess staff capabilities and define clear content management workflows before committing to a workload separation strategy.
Each ArcGIS Online organization maintains its own identity store. Users who need access to multiple organizations will need accounts in each. If the organization configures SAML or OIDC-based enterprise logins that can span multiple ArcGIS Online organizations, users will still need a user account and know the correct organization URL for each workflow.
Plan for how users will authenticate and switch between organizations during time-sensitive operations.
Most organizations establish workload separation after existing content has been created. Any existing content migrated to a new organization will result in:
New item IDs
New service URLs
New organization short-name URL
Existing bookmarks, embedded links, and external integrations will need to be updated. This is a one-time requirement but may be significant for organizations with mature, widely referenced content.
For organizations where critical workloads are low-volume or low-risk, the trade-offs of workload separation may outweigh the benefits. In those cases, ensure configuration best practices are being followed within a single organization.