# Cesium newbie questions

**URL:** <https://community.cesium.com/t/cesium-newbie-questions/27138>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [October 4, 2023, 2:12am UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/cesium-newbie-questions/27138 "2023-10-04T02:12:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JHParsons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e36b37/32.png) [@JHParsons](https://community.cesium.com/u/JHParsons)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2023, 2:12am UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/cesium-newbie-questions/27138/1 "2023-10-04T02:12:43Z")

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Hello! I’m at the very beginning of a new Cesium project, and I’m just a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Hoping people can point me to some documentation.

- Is there a high level architecture doc for Cesium? I see CesiumJS, Cesium Native C++ API, etc. I’m speculating that under the hood Cesium is built in C++, with an API support to Javascript. Is that accurate?
- Is there documentation specific to running an on-premises instance of Cesium?
- Any minimum hardware specs for an on-premises project?
- I understand that Cesium Ion requires a subscription. Does the Ion API require a subscription, or just the products provided by Cesium via Ion?

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**Author:** ![apaulson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/cesium/user_avatar/community.cesium.com/apaulson/32/14037_2.png) [@apaulson](https://community.cesium.com/u/apaulson)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2023, 9:21pm UTC](https://community.cesium.com/t/cesium-newbie-questions/27138/2 "2023-10-08T21:21:01Z")

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Hello JHParsons!

Thank you for reaching out and for your interest in Cesium. I apologize for the delay in response.

Please find below a few links that may help:

High Level Architecture Diagram. I was not sure if you were interested in Cesium ion Self-Hosted or Cesium ion SaaS, so I provided both:

- Cesium ion Self-Hosted: [Integrate 3D Tiling into Custom Solutions with Cesium ion Self-Hosted – Cesium](https://cesium.com/blog/2023/08/02/cesium-ion-self-hosted/)
- Cesium ion SaaS: [Cesium ion Cloud Architecture – Cesium](https://cesium.com/blog/2018/03/12/cesium-ion-server-architecture/)

This one pager typically adds clarity for individuals learning about Cesium. It is a simple value chain slide that shows the Product offerings of Cesium within the different parts of the value chain:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/cesium/original/3X/c/7/c75ef4103e5b63d95880dc098e570880fec1e303.jpeg)

Re APIs: Cesium is an API first company. We support open-source formats and APIs to Javascript

- [Ion REST API documentation – Cesium](https://cesium.com/learn/ion/rest-api/)

Re: Documentation to running an on-premise instance of Cesium:

- Cesium ion Self-Hosted - more details here: [https://cesium.com/learn/ion/self-hosted](https://cesium.com/learn/ion/self-hosted)

Cesium ion does require a subscription. There are two ways you can purchase this

- Cesium ion SaaS - pricing is here: [Pricing Plans – Cesium](https://cesium.com/platform/cesium-ion/pricing/)
- Cesium ion Self-Hosted - I can provide more details on this if you are interested, please send a note to [sales@cesium.com](mailto:sales@cesium.com)

Please let me know if I addressed your questions satisfactorily. I would be happy to continue the discussion, please send a note to [sales@cesium.com](mailto:sales@cesium.com) to continue the discussion.

Thank you,

**Alex Paulson**  
_Business Development_