Users can now save on cloud resources costs as they gain access to CloudFerro cloud instances at significantly reduced prices compared to standard VMs. CloudFerro has launched an open beta programme for Spot instances in WAW3-2 cloud, which offers a reasonable cost-effective alternative for cloud computing needs.
The programme gives users access to instances at significantly reduced prices compared to standard VMs, leveraging unused cloud resources. SPOT instances provide users with all fundamental functionalities of regular VMs but with the proviso that the VMs can be terminated at any moment by CloudFerro, resulting in the deletion of all resources provisioned within VM definition, including storage.
Designed for stateless workloads that can tolerate interruptions, Spot instances are particularly suited for batch processing tasks, such as the analysis of Earth observation data, where immediate completion is not critical. This makes them an attractive option for projects seeking to minimize costs without stringent uptime requirements.
Users interested in participating in the open beta for Spot instances should contact their CloudFerro sales representative for more information. The programme represents an opportunity to explore the benefits of Spot instances in a live environment providing feedback that can shape the service's future development. Spot flavors are available as private in selected projects. Spot instances will be available for all users in the following months.
For a detailed list of supported operating systems, images, and further information on provisioning, termination, and billing, please go to the CloudFerro cloud documentation and the Horizon dashboard.
European users can now benefit from CloudFerro’s significantly improved network infrastructure at the FRA2 cloud location in Frankfurt, Germany, thanks to a new 100 Gbit/s peering agreement between CloudFerro and the Deutsches Forschungsnetz (DFN). This upgrade, along with its existing connection to the GÉANT Network at this location, provides top-notch connectivity options for European researchers and data scientists.
The network upgrade will bring great benefits to the scientific and educational communities, who will now gain faster access to large data repositories. It will facilitate collaboration on projects, both locally and around the world.
The Deutsches Forschungsnetz (DFN) is Germany’s leading research and education network, providing advanced communication infrastructure to support the country’s scientific, academic, and research communities. It offers a wide range of services, including high-speed internet access, connectivity to national and international research networks, and tools for collaborative projects. DFN plays a crucial role in facilitating seamless data exchange and enabling collaborative efforts among researchers, educators, and students across Germany and beyond, thereby supporting the advancement of knowledge and innovation in various fields.
It is worth noting that EU researchers and scientists can receive funding for cloud resources from the OCRE project (Open Clouds for Research Environments), which aims to foster cloud adoption, offering ready-made service contracts bringing together cloud providers, Earth Observation (EO) organisations and the research and education community. To find out more about OCRE, please visit: https://cloudferro.com/ocre-open-clouds-for-research-environments/
Since the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem was launched in January 2023, it has served huge amount of satellite data from the Copernicus Earth Observation programme. In October 2023 the platform became ESA’s first and main distribution site for Sentinel-1, 2, 3 and 5P data. A recently published dashboard shows which EO data from the Copernicus programme are the most popular among its users.
Since the launch until today, over 145,000 users have registered to the system. So far, the users have downloaded more than 20 PetaBytes of satellite data from 64 PB of Sentinel products published.
Not only the number of Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem users and products are impressive. Let’s take a look at the performance of the IT infrastructure serving the data to users all over the world. The measured average download speed exceeds 90 MB/s, and the average time to wait for a response from the data catalogue is below 700 ms. This are strong results especially in relation the number of published products that exceeds 100 million, and is growing at a rate of 2 million products (~950 TB) per month. Only in December 2023, users displayed satellite images 31 million times.
Looking at individual missions, by far the most popular is the Sentinel-2 data, with more than 238 million downloaded products totalling 16PB (82% of all downloads). The total number of products available to the user is 66.52 M, and the entire collection occupies 35.3 PB, taking into account the already partly available ESA reprocessing data (Collection 1).
Sentinel-3 is a runner-up in terms of the number of products downloaded is, with 6 M products downloaded with a total size of more than 3.6 PB. The entire mission consists of more than 17 M products with a total size of more than 5 PB.
Considering the size of products downloaded, Sentinel-1 (3.5 M products, 5.1 PB) takes the second place. The total number of products available is 10.8 M with a total size of 20.8 PB. Sentinel-5P data was downloaded almost 2 M times, and the size of the transferred files exceeded 750 TB. A total of 4.2 M products are available, 1.7 PB of data.
Regularly updated data are available on the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem panel that you can check out on https://dashboard.dataspace.copernicus.eu/#/service-insight
You are welcome to submit your abstract for the session we are co-organizing „New opportunities and insights from Copernicus satellite imagery open data infrastructures”.
This session aims to connect developers and users to explore the technical aspects and opportunities of the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, emphasizing practical use cases and ongoing projects in geoscience research and development. User perspective is very valuable and all the ideas shared will help build the recently launched Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem that we proudly contribute to. Deadline for abstracts: January 10, 2024.
Not sure how to submit an abstract for EGU2024? See useful guidelines.
EGU General Assembly is one of the most prestigious events in the EO sector attracting over 19,000 participants from 120+ countries! It is organised by European Geosciences Union (EGU) - an international union of scientists with about 19,500 members from all over the world.