Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem has become the primary source of Earth Observation data from the Copernicus space programme in November 2023. Since the kick-off in January 2023, the number of users has grown significantly, reaching 95 000 in mid-December. The users come from worldwide Earth Observation communities, including science, universities and the general public.

As of now, the priority was set to provide access to the user-level EO datasets, which were enriched recently with new data, including Auxiliary, Engineering and POD type, which are mainly accessible to expert users only. In addition, the new Sentinel-2 Quarterly Mosaics are available on the Copernicus Browser in the Visualize panel, providing the ability to view the EO data in a very user-friendly manner, with zooming and 3D options available. This is a significant change compared to the legacy service, bringing the new service to the level of top-performing EO services worldwide.

All services available on the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem are free of charge, enabling the execution of most use cases. Any user whose needs exceed the capacity and quotas on Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem is welcome to log in with a federated identity on CREODIAS to access a broader set of services or on a larger scale.

In parallel to the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, we gradually enrich the offering of other services provided on CREODIAS, to develop the European EO ecosystem that is accessible to all users at any scale.

Without resting on the laurels, the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem roadmap of new services for the New Year is impressive. It includes On-Demand Production for Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-3 products, further development of STAC API, delivery of Sentinel-1 bursts and the integration of Copernicus Contributing Missions datasets. All mentioned services will be gradually available from the first quarter of 2024. The above is just a snapshot of features and enrichments that are in development at this moment.

Kubernetes clusters can be provisioned on WAW3-2 cloud via OpenStack Magnum, in a platform as a service model. We have now added the capability of provisioning master nodes of these clusters with fast NVMe storage. Thus, the etcd key-value store is deployed and accessible with low latency.

This scenario is especially relevant for data-intensive applications on clusters with high load and multiple K8s resources to ensure robust operations. To apply the feature, create a cluster with HMAD flavor master nodes, and add a relevant label during cluster creation in the Horizon GUI.

Check out the knowledge base article to find out more.

GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) feature multi-core architecture that enables highly parallel workloads. With specific algorithms especially in the field of Machine Learning, GPUs greatly outmatch the performance of modern CPU units.

On WAW3-1 cloud, you can now combine the power of vGPU with the capabilities of CloudFerro Kubernetes as a Service, which features autoscaling and native integration with other cloud services. You can now create a new K8s cluster consisting of vGPU worker nodes from the Horizon GUI in a few minutes. You can also add vGPU nodes to an existing cluster.

For more information, read an article about vGPU in K8s Knowledge Base.

To simplify and enhance your experience while mitigating any operational or billing issues, we have recently implemented some important changes to CloudFerro cloud capabilities.

Running Windows on Virtual Machines (VMs) on the CloudFerro cloud has been enhanced to ensure greater efficiency and flexibility for our clients. Before the changes, users were able to install Windows on any VM, which led to complications in billing, VM migration, and increased costs. To address these issues, improvements have been implemented and now Windows can only be installed on specialized VMs identified with a "w" in their name on WAW3-1 and CF2 instances. These new flavors include the cost of a Windows license, streamlining billing and operational procedures. This also enables both pay-per-use (PPU) and pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing models to support Windows OS.

What does it mean for the existing clients?

If you already are the CloudFerro client, you do not need to take any action — your current VMs will continue to function as usually. For new Windows VMs, make sure to select these new specialized flavors. The new VM types are optimized to leverage the full capabilities of the physical servers they run on and optimize the cost of licenses.

In addition, new Windows compatibility to FRA1-2 and WAW3-2 instances have also been added to respond to the clients’ demand.

For specialized Windows needs which are not covered by these new flavors, please contact your account manager for tailored solutions.