This document discusses Earth observation exploitation platforms from a business perspective. It outlines the context of data spaces and exploitation platforms in Earth observation. It then discusses the business perspectives of a platform provider and user. For providers, it notes the opportunity to build platforms through 2-3 year contracts, but also barriers around legal issues, costs of moving to cloud/platform models, and maturity of the ecosystem. For users, it discusses barriers of legal deficiencies, financial costs, and trust in transferring data to external platforms, but also opportunities to finance developing new platform capabilities.

1. Copyright © TERRASIGNA 2019
European Data Spaces –
Earth Observation exploitationplatforms –
A business perspective
Florin Șerban, Codrina Ilie
European Big Data Value Forum
14-16 October 2019

2. Presentation outline
(European) Data Spaces – the Earth Observation context
A business perspective on European Data Spaces
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3. Geospatial Big Data
Raster Vector Sensors Mobile
It’s easier than ever to collect geospatial data,
but how can we exploit these geospatial big data?
Courtesy: D. Roman, SINTEF / BDVA

4. Big Data Services
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Data as a Service (DaaS)
Information as a Service (InfoaaS)

5. Cloud Providers
Amazon AWS
Google Compute
Engine
HP Enterprise
Converged
Infrastructure
Rackspace Open
Cloud
Red Hat OpenShift
IBM Smart Cloud
Enterprise
...

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Functional Requirements
for the
CopernicusDistribution
Servicesand the Data and
Information Access
Services(DIAS)
06 December 2016
(DG-GROW)
Ref. Ares(2016)6929597 -
13/12/2016

7. Copernicus Data and InformationAccess Services
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8. Number of
users
1000 500 1834 791 n/a
Paying
contracts
30 18 120 50 n/a
EO data &
products (mln) /
Volume of data
storage (PB)
20 / 19 22 / 10 16 / 12.7 n/a n/a
Target date to
achieve
sustainability
end of 2021 mid 2023 end of 2021 mid 2021 n/a
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9. ESA Exploitation Platforms
Three types of such platforms are considered:
Thematic Exploitation Platforms - focusing on all data and services
needed for a specific community sharing a specific Earth Science Topic
Mission Exploitation Platforms - providing all data of a specific
mission together with the tools to exploit them
Regional Exploitation Platforms - collecting all data of relevance for
the target geographic region

10. Platform Services
ICT Services
Data Services
Sentinel
Data
Service Information
DIAS
Knowledge Tier
Commercial & Public EO Services Scientific Research
Courtesy of Guenther Landgraf,
The Network of EO Exploitation Platforms, 2016
ESA vision for the Exploitation Platforms

11. Platform Services
ICT Services
Data Services
Sentinel
Data
Service Information
DIAS
Data Driven PlatformsESA “Mission Exploitation
Platforms” (MEPs)
On-boarded Missions
Knowledge Tier
Commercial & Public EO Services Scientific Research
Courtesy of Guenther Landgraf,
The Network of EO Exploitation Platforms, 2016
ESA vision for the Exploitation Platforms

12. Platform Services
ICT Services
Data Services
Sentinel
Data
Service Information
DIAS
Data Driven PlatformsESA “Mission Exploitation
Platforms” (MEPs)
On-boarded Missions
Knowledge Tier
Commercial & Public EO Services Scientific Research
Community
Driven
Platforms
“Thematic
Exploitation
Platforms”
(TEPs)
Courtesy of Guenther Landgraf,
The Network of EO Exploitation Platforms, 2016
ESA vision for the Exploitation Platforms

13. Platform Services
ICT Services
Data Services
Sentinel
Data
Service Information
DIAS
Data Driven PlatformsESA “Mission Exploitation
Platforms” (MEPs)
On-boarded Missions
Knowledge Tier
Commercial & Public EO Services Scientific Research
Community
Driven
Platforms
“Thematic
Exploitation
Platforms”
(TEPs)
Courtesy of Guenther Landgraf,
The Network of EO Exploitation Platforms, 2016
ESA vision for the Exploitation Platforms

14. Terrasigna - background
Romanian companydeveloping a highly
innovative and performant Geo-Information
services
Areas of expertise:
• Complex monitoring services based on satellite and in
situ data processing for: natural hazards and risks
(droughts, floods, landslides / earthquakes), mining,
urban areas, wetlands, agriculture, forestry, critical
infrastructure, CO2 storage areas
• Web based applications and exploitation platforms for
data searching, downloading, management and
processing
• Big data / data mining - analytics tools and services for
EO and linked data access
• Educational software development

15. A business perspective on European Data Spaces
Earth Observation ExploitationPlatforms
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Provider User

16. The business perspective of the provider
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The business perspective of the provider
2 to 3 years contract for the consortium to build the platform
according to the stated principles and specified technical
requirements and to market its capacities
Governance, Common
Architecture, Network of
Platforms, Evolving Shared
Technical Capabilities
G. Landgraf
Exploitation Platform
Open Architecture
ESAdocument prepared
by Salvatore Pinto, 2016

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EO Exploitation Platform Common Architecture
The overall scope of the project is to define
and agree the technical interfaces for the
future exploitation of Earth Observation
data in a distributed environment.

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JRC Earth Observation
Data and Processing
Platform (JEODPP)

20. Interactions with potential clients
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21. The business perspective of the user
Twofold :
1. The user looking for an exploitation platform for his
business
2. Financing opportunities for further developments of
platform capabilities
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22. Business on an exploitation platform
Barriers:
• legal: “Almost all current EO exploitation platforms have clear deficiencies with
regard to legal information to users and/or how such information is presented. “
(BHO Legal, Study on the legal aspects of Earth Observation exploitation
platforms, 2018)
• financial – switching to the cloud/platform paradigm implies significant costs
related to the entire processing workflow
• sustainability – level of maturity of the EO exploitation platforms ecosystem
• trust of the EO added value service customer to transfer its datasets/database to an
external platform
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23. Developing platform capabilities
Financing opportunities for further developments of platform
capabilities, such as the:
European Data Cube Facility service: the ultimate EO resource for
researchers and value-adders
Open Earth Engine – procurement of an Earth Observation processing
and analytical platformcapability
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24. Thank you for attention
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