OVHcloud and Serco power ESA’s DestinE platform to track natural and human impact on Earth

Ambitious partnership between two key European players aims to ultimately create a digital twin of planet Earth.
 
Paris – February 18th 2025 – OVHcloud, a global player and the European cloud leader, and Serco, a space industry leader with more than 40 years of experience in the field, today join forces in the delivery of the DestinE Platform. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies including Artificial Intelligence, the platform improves the use of data obtained from Earth Observation through Digital Twins acting as advanced models that replicate environmental systems to assist in the adaptation to climate change.
 
The Destination Earth initiative sponsored by the European Commission has been assigned to three agencies representing European excellence in the field: ESA (European Space Agency), responsible of the platform, EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) and ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts).
 
The DestinE Platform plays a crucial role in this historical moment, supporting the European Commission in achieving sustainable development goals and directly contributing to the European Green Deal and the Digital Strategy.
 
The DestinE platform is now live with bold ambitions
 
The DestinE Platform is now open to users. One of the ambitious goals of the DestinE platform is to create an accurate digital twin of planet Earth. This tool is designed to monitor and simulate the effects of natural phenomena and human activity, while providing accurate and timely information on multi-decade scale projections, high-resolution forecasts and on-demand simulations. These data support the design of adaptation strategies and promote the adoption of targeted policies to address climate challenges.
 
Cutting edge Cloud technologies powering the DestinE platform
 
As part of the DestinE platform, the European Space Agency needs solutions to enable the processing of vast amounts of data, constantly working to optimize the process. Using state-of-the-art data management and processing technologies, robust security measures and built-in flexibility for easy scalability, OVHcloud’s PaaS solutions support the DestinE platform in processing satellite data and digital climate models.
 
The following services are used to answer the specific needs of the platform:

• Latest-generation CPUs and GPUs that meet various data analysis needs, including the most demanding artificial intelligence algorithms.
• Managed orchestration services such as Kubernetes and Rancher, enabling the creation of complex microservices architectures.
• A broad portfolio of managed databases to support multiple types of data (structured, unstructured and time series.) 

Furthermore, OVHcloud’s commitment to data sovereignty ensures the implementation of European data privacy and security principles within the DestinE platform, creating an ultra-secure and responsible digital environment.

The project deployment also aligns seamlessly with OVHcloud’s long-standing commitment to sustainable innovation, embodied in its core values, such as watercooling, which has enabled the European cloud player to achieve industry-leading levels of energy efficiency (PUE 1.26) and water usage effectiveness (WUE 0.37) for data centers.
 
Serco and its key role in the development of the DestinE Platform
 
Leveraging its extensive experience in providing services to international institutions in the space sector, Serco leads the industrial consortium responsible for the development and implementation of the DestinE platform. The company plays a central role in the collaborative ecosystem, which is at the heart of the platform, as well as providing support to the user community and managing the integration of external services and applications. Serco's responsibilities include the design, maintenance, and continuous evolution of the platform, ensuring ongoing improvements to maximize functionality and enhance performance. With its continuous commitment to adopting advanced technologies, Serco is dedicated to promoting innovative solutions that align with the strategic goals of the DestinE initiative, fostering a positive impact on the future.

"We are proud to support the DestinE Platform project alongside our partner Serco and to actively contribute to tackling the many challenges of climate change,” says Caroline Comet Fraigneau, Chief Sales Officer at OVHcloud. "Today, we celebrate a partnership built on mutual trust that has significantly evolved into a deeply strategic collaboration. We are proud to deliver high levels of innovation, autonomy, and sovereignty to this historic initiative. By combining the performance, flexibility, and scalability of cloud solutions, this partnership sets a new standard for excellence."

 "We are excited to continue this collaboration with OVHcloud as part of the expansion of the DestinE Platform," says Guido Vingione, Business Development Director, Space at Serco Europe. "This project represents a key step toward innovation and sustainability, enabling us to tackle the challenges of climate change with advanced tools. Through this synergy, we combine expertise and cutting-edge technologies to ensure a resilient, flexible, and high-performance infrastructure. Our partnership is based on a shared vision of excellence and technological autonomy, and we are proud to contribute to such a strategically significant initiative for Europe's digital future."

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