OVHcloud and CGI have been awarded a multi-million-euro, 30-month contract by the European Space Agency to build "Digital EO," a sovereign digital infrastructure for storing, processing and sharing Europe's Earth observation satellite data, Reuters reported. ESA expects to hold more than 500 petabytes of Earth observation data by 2035, and the new system is meant to make that data easier to manage and use.
According to OVHcloud's announcement, Digital EO will pool storage, computing power and AI tools for researchers, public bodies, businesses and citizens, and will connect to existing national and European facilities. OVHcloud, described by Reuters as Europe's largest cloud provider, will supply the computing, storage and network capacity, while CGI, acting through its CGI France Défense et Spatial subsidiary, will serve as architect and integrator of the system.
The system will initially be deployed in Italy, France and Germany, with support capabilities operated from Poland, and OVHcloud said it has the capability to extend to other European countries and Canada. Digital EO is designed to support programs including the European Union's Copernicus Earth observation program and DestinE, the EU's digital twin of Earth.
"Europe absolutely must have control over the infrastructure that runs its most strategic programs," said Octave Klaba, CEO and founder of OVHcloud, adding that the goal is "to build a robust, sovereign European Digital EO able to evolve over time, in step with ESA's needs and ambitions." ESA's Nicolaus Hanowski, Head of EO Mission Management and Ground Segment Department, said Digital EO would allow the agency "to take a new step forward in the way Earth Observation data is managed and used."
Reuters noted the award follows a €180 million ($205 million) cloud tender handed exclusively to four European firms in April, reflecting the European Commission's push to steer strategic workloads to European providers. Earlier in September, ESA also awarded parallel study contracts to teams led by ICEYE and Leonardo to design a separate, security-focused Earth observation architecture for EU governments.