European Space Agency taps OVHcloud and CGI for Earth observation system

Digital EO will provide Earth observation data to scientists, public bodies, businesses, and citizens

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected OVHcloud and CGI to help it build "Digital EO," an Earth observation information system.

Digital EO will use sovereign digital infrastructure to federate data, services, and processing related to Earth observation efforts, and provide data for use by scientists, public bodies, businesses, and citizens.

The multi-million-euro contract will last for 30 months.

OVH will provide the cloud platform for a decentralized and scalable system to store the growing data generated through Earth observation efforts – currently expected to exceed 500 petabytes by 2035.

“Digital EO must allow us to take a new step forward in the way Earth Observation data is managed and used. With CGI and OVHcloud, we will build and operate a European innovative and sovereign system capable of supporting this ambition and of providing lasting support to the ESA and European Commission programs like Copernicus and DestinE,” said Nicolaus Hanowski, head of EO Mission Management and Ground Segment Department, ESA.

The cloud infrastructure will initially be deployed in Italy, France, and Germany, with support capabilities operated from Poland. OVHcloud operates cloud regions in all four locations.

“Europe absolutely must have control over the infrastructure that runs its most strategic programs. With Digital EO, we are putting our sovereign cloud expertise at ESA’s service so that it can build innovative solutions to process, store and make the most of ever-growing volumes of Earth Observation data for the benefit of research, industry and operational user communities. All of this with the highest levels of performance, resilience and security. Our ambition is clear: to build a robust, sovereign European Digital EO able to evolve over time, in step with ESA’s needs and ambitions,” added Octave Klaba, CEO & founder, OVHcloud.

The European Space Agency previously selected Equal1 to provide quantum computing capabilities for its Earth observations. The Bell-1 Quantum Computer is deployed at ESA’s Φ-lab (pronounced ‘Phi-Lab’). The Φ-lab is located at ESA’s ESRIN establishment outside Rome in Frascati, Italy. The site also hosts ESA's HPE-made Space HPC cluster.

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