ROK Technologies named one of the first Esri partners to earn the new ArcGIS Imagery Specialty

CHARLESTON, S.C., Jan. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ROK Technologies announced that it has been recognized by Esri as one of the first partners to earn the ArcGIS Imagery Specialty, a new designation awarded to organizations demonstrating exceptional expertise in modern imagery workflows, configuring and managing imagery content, advanced processing, and enterprise-scale geospatial intelligence. As imagery rapidly evolves into a critical data asset for organizations across both public and private sectors, Esri introduced the specialty to identify partners who can help customers operationalize imagery at scale and unlock its full potential within the ArcGIS system.

ROK’s early leadership in cloud-native imagery positioned the company as a natural fit for the specialty; spending more than a decade helping state agencies, cities, utilities, and enterprise GIS teams consolidate massive imagery libraries, eliminate duplication, accelerate publishing times, and architect cloud environments that make imagery fast, scalable, and always available.

Beau Legeer, Esri Global Business Director of Imagery and Remote Sensing, highlights ROK’s commitment to and knowledge of imagery modernization:

“The Imagery Specialty recognizes partners who help organizations use imagery as far more than a contextual element – it’s about turning Imagery and Reality Mapping data into a foundational source of insight for GIS systems. ROK Technologies shows how cloud-based systems can make imagery faster, more affordable, and more useful for organizations. They’ve proven that modernizing how imagery is stored and accessed transforms it into real business intelligence.”

Proof Through Client Success Stories

ROK’s specialty approval was strengthened by several high-impact client engagements. For the State of Ohio (OGRIP), ROK migrated 30 terabytes of imagery from costly on-premises storage to AWS and transformed it into Cloud optimized GeoTIFFs to greatly improve accessibility and performance. By leveraging a scalable Citrix VDI environment, the team accelerated processing and cache creation, delivering a fast, efficient, and cost-effective cloud imagery solution.

Similarly, the City of Chattanooga worked with ROK to modernize its enterprise imagery environment in AWS. ROK helped the city scale Esri Image Server for advanced raster analytics and deep-learning feature extraction, while also transitioning from dynamic topo services to high-speed vector tiles in cloud storage. These improvements resolved major performance issues and were later highlighted on the main stage of the 2025 Esri User Conference.

What the Specialty Means

“Imagery is becoming one of the most valuable enterprise datasets organizations manage,” said Jason Harris, CTO of ROK Technologies. “Being among the first to earn the Imagery Specialty validates the work we’ve been leading for over a decade and reflects our commitment to helping GIS teams transform imagery into fast, reliable, cloud-native intelligence.”

The Imagery Specialty partner designation reinforces ROK’s status as a trusted partner for organizations seeking to modernize their ArcGIS Enterprise environment and harness the full capabilities of next-generation imagery workflows. For clients, the designation offers confidence that ROK brings proven architectures, validated expertise, and successful real-world outcomes to imagery-driven GIS modernization.

To help organizations better understand the value of the Imagery Specialty and the modern workflows it supports, ROK has published a companion article, “Why Esri’s ArcGIS Imagery Specialty Matters and Why ROK Technologies Was Among the First to Earn It,” now available on the ROK Technologies website. The article highlights why Esri’s Imagery Specialty is a milestone for customers and partners, providing a clear way to identify experts who can help transform large imagery collections into reliable, cloud-native, enterprise-ready intelligence.

About ROK Technologies

ROK Technologies helps organizations migrate, optimize, manage, and scale ArcGIS Enterprise in the Cloud. Acting as a dedicated extension of GIS and IT teams, ROK delivers fully managed cloud environments, high-performance architectures, staff augmentation, and expert support across AWS, Azure, and GCP. ROK is an Esri Platinum Partner, ArcGIS System Ready, ArcGIS Cloud Services Specialty Partner, and now one of the first ArcGIS Imagery Specialty Partners. Contact us for more information, roktech.net/contact-us

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SOURCE ROK Technologies, Inc