Qonda Deploy — ArcGIS Content Deployment & Promotion

Sec. 01 — Who it's for

If you manage content across more than one portal, these come up constantly.

Qonda Deploy answers all of them, without scripting or giving operators production admin accounts.

How do I promote this web map to production without breaking anything?

What version of this feature service is running in our live environment?

Who approved the last deployment, and when?

Something changed in production. What exactly changed, and who changed it?

Can we roll back the deployment from Friday?

We need sign-off before anything reaches our live environment.

Which items need re-deploying after our Enterprise upgrade?

Our production network is air-gapped. How do we keep records in sync?

FOR

GIS teams managing multi-environment deployments

GIS administrators
GIS architects
Release and change managers
GIS and compliance managers
Governance teams
IT operations

WHEN

Controlled deployments matter

Managing a DTAP chain of DEV, TEST, STAGING and PROD portals
Migrating to a new ArcGIS Enterprise version
Running a change-controlled release process
Auditors need a record of every deployment

WHERE

Your infrastructure, your control

Self-hosted on your own Windows server
Or fully managed SaaS in your region
Your ArcGIS credentials never leave your infrastructure

Sec. 02 — Capabilities

A complete release-management platform for ArcGIS content.

From immutable version snapshots to approval gates and a searchable deployment history.

Item Catalog

Register portal items - web maps, apps, dashboards, services - and manage each one's deployment lifecycle from a central catalog, with per-environment status visible at a glance. Every item you register becomes a tracked, versioned object rather than a file you copy by hand.

Version Snapshots

Capture the current state of any item as a named, immutable version, recording who took it and when.

JSON Diff

Compare any two versions side by side, down to individual field values and nested config.

Multi-Environment Deployment

Model your full DTAP pipeline and promote any version to any target with a single action.

Approval Workflows

Require one or more approvers before a deploy reaches a sensitive environment.

Live Dashboard

A real-time view of in-progress deploys, approvals awaiting action and recent activity.

Deployment History

A complete, searchable record of every deploy. Re-run any historical version.

Automatic Backups

Scheduled daily and monthly database backups with rotation, plus manual backups on demand.

Audit Log

Every login, deploy, approval and config change is logged for compliance review.

Bulk Item Import

Timeline View

A swimlane timeline showing when versions were captured and which environments they reached.

Disconnected Sync

Keep isolated instances in sync online, or exchange a single bundle file across an air gap.

Groups & Roles Catalog

Version and promote portal groups and custom member roles alongside your items.

Governance Controls

Carry authoritative and deprecated status through from source, and protect production items from deletion.

Service Publishing

Upload .mapx and .pyt files and publish to ArcGIS Server, with per-environment connection remapping.

Mapping Engine

Automatically retarget URLs, service references, field names and domain values between environments, so item configuration is correct after promotion - with no manual editing.

Supported item types

Portal apps & content

Web Maps
Web Mapping Applications
Dashboards
Experience Builder apps
StoryMaps
Hub Sites & Site Pages
Survey123 forms
Feature Collections
Document Links & Images
Styles & Desktop Styles

Hosted data

Hosted Feature Layers
Hosted Feature Layer Views
CSV
GeoJSON
Shapefile
File Geodatabase

Referenced & secured services

External Feature Services
External Map Services
External Image Services
Service Proxy items
OGC WMS
OGC WFS
OGC WMTS

Published to ArcGIS Server

Map services (.mapx)
Feature services (.mapx)
Geoprocessing services (.pyt)
Connection remapping + SD build

Packages & templates

Workflow Manager Packages (.wpk)
Pro Project templates (.aptx)
Experience Builder custom widgets

Portal objects

Portal Groups
Custom member Roles
Item sharing & access level
Authoritative / deprecated status

Sec. 03 — Environments

Connect your entire ArcGIS estate.

Unlimited source and target environments across every Esri platform type, with no extra configuration per environment.

AGOL

ArcGIS Online

Full support for ArcGIS Online organisations as source or target environments.

PORTAL

Portal for ArcGIS

ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5 and later. Built-in, Windows, token and OAuth authentication.

X-PLAT

Cross-Platform Promotion

Promote from ArcGIS Online to Enterprise, or between Enterprise environments at different versions.

∞ ENV

Unlimited Environments

AIR-GAP

Isolated & Air-Gapped Networks

Two instances sync online when connected, or exchange a single bundle file across the boundary.

Sec. 04 — Method

Up and running in minutes.

Installs as a Windows Service and connects to your ArcGIS environments with your existing credentials. No extra infrastructure.

STATION 01

Connect

STATION 02

Snapshot

Add portal items and capture their current state as a version, with author and timestamp.

STATION 03

Deploy

Pick a version and a target. If the environment requires approval, approvers are notified.

STATION 04

Track

Watch live progress on the dashboard and compare any two versions with a full diff.

Nothing else required No ArcGIS Pro licence No Git or source control No CI/CD pipeline No FME or ETL No scripting No per-user licensing

Sec. 05 — In action

A controlled path from development to production.

Every deployment follows a traceable, audited path, sequenced through your environments with approval gates where you need them.

Fig. 2 — Product overview 02:00

Sec. 06 — Security

Built with security at its core.

Qonda Deploy runs entirely within your own infrastructure. Your ArcGIS credentials and content never leave your control.

Trusted

Built by the team behind Qonda Reports, trusted by GIS teams worldwide for almost a decade.

Self-hosted

Runs entirely within your own infrastructure. You choose where it runs and who can reach it.

Your data stays with you

Credentials, item configurations and deployment history are never sent to Ope Ltd or any third party.

Own user management

Operators deploy without ever needing direct portal admin credentials.

Secure by default

HTTPS only with a certificate generated on install, plus CSP and X-Frame-Options headers.

No telemetry

No outbound connections you don't know about, even for licensing. What happens on your server stays there.

Sec. 07 — Alternatives

How we compare.

Qonda Deploy is purpose-built for GIS administrators and release managers. Here is how it stacks up against the alternatives.

Manual promotion

Exporting items from one portal and re-importing them into another by hand through the ArcGIS web interface.

The catch

No version history - no record of what was deployed or when
No approval workflow - anyone with portal access can overwrite production
No diff view - impossible to see what changed between exports
URL and service references must be updated by hand every time
No audit trail for compliance or incident review

Scripted (ArcGIS Python API)

Custom Python scripts using the ArcGIS API for Python to automate item promotion between environments.

The catch

Requires developer skills to write, test and maintain
Scripts break silently when ArcGIS versions or schemas change
No built-in approval gates - governance lives outside the script
No UI - operators need command-line access and Python
Connection remapping must be re-implemented per environment

Sec. 08 — FAQ

Common questions.

Everything you need to know before getting started.

Why not just use Git or GitHub?

ArcGIS portal items are live objects stored in a portal database, not files on a filesystem. Git versions files; it has no concept of a web map, a feature service or a hosted layer, and no way to read from or write to a portal.

Even if you exported items to JSON and committed them, you would still need custom code to authenticate to each portal's REST API, resolve embedded item IDs and service URLs that differ between environments, push configuration back through the portal's publish methods, and handle item types that require a Service Definition build. Qonda Deploy does all of this natively.

Does it work with ArcGIS Online?

Yes, fully. ArcGIS Online organisations are supported as source or target environments alongside Portal for ArcGIS, in any combination of Online and Enterprise.

Do operators need portal admin accounts?

No. Each environment is configured with a single service account that Qonda Deploy uses. Operators log in to Qonda Deploy only - they never see or need portal credentials. Access levels (Admin, Approver, Deployer) are managed independently of ArcGIS.

What ArcGIS item types are supported?

A wide range out of the box, including:

Portal apps and content - Web Maps, Dashboards, Experience Builder, StoryMaps, Hub Sites, Survey123, Feature Collections, Document Links, Images and styles
Hosted feature services and views, recreated from their captured definition
Referenced services - external feature, map and image pointers, plus OGC WMS, WFS and WMTS
Services published to ArcGIS Server from .mapx and .pyt, with connection remapping
CSV, GeoJSON, Shapefile and File Geodatabase uploads
Workflow Manager Packages (.wpk), Pro project templates (.aptx) and Experience Builder custom widgets

What happens if a deployment fails?

Every snapshot is stored in the catalog and is never modified or deleted by a later deployment. If a deploy fails, the previous version stays intact and can be re-deployed with one click. The dashboard shows the failure immediately with a full error message.

Does it work with air-gapped or disconnected environments?

Yes. When connectivity exists, sync happens automatically. When environments are separated by a boundary, a single self-contained bundle file is exported from one side, transferred across by whatever means is available, and imported on the other. No persistent connection is required.

How is Qonda Deploy updated?

Updates are self-hosted and admin-controlled. From Settings, an administrator can check the latest version and apply an update in one click - Qonda Deploy downloads the build, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, stages it, and restarts the service. Nothing installs automatically.

Is there a trial or evaluation option?

We offer a fully guided live demo and can arrange an evaluation deployment on your own infrastructure. Get in touch and we will set something up around your schedule.