Ozius deploys cloud to scale environmental intelligence

Earth observation analytics company Ozius is using satellite data to deliver environmental intelligence to customers in energy, utilities, natural capital and government sectors to support their net zero goals.

Tapping into a combination of data sources including from sensors on the International Space Station and the European Space Agency, Ozius is able to capture data such as the height of trees globally, the structure of vegetation and the health of forests, to better inform investment decisions for carbon offset projects.

Digital Nation Australia spoke to Alisa Starkey, founder and chief scientist at Ozius at the AWS Summit in Canberra yesterday, about the organisation’s shift from on-premise to cloud.

“In order to be able to process at scale, we really needed some very high-performance computing power, and being a small business ourselves we didn't have a high-performance computing machine in our backyard. So, we knew we had to migrate to the cloud. ” Starkey told Digital Nation.

Deploying the relational database engine, Amazon Aurora, Ozius was able to ingest 10 times more data and process data points 450 times faster than on its previous system.

According to Starkey, “It means that we are able to service customers that probably wouldn't have seen it feasible to wait that long in the past to get that kind of information. They probably would have looked for alternative pieces of information. It wouldn't have been as good, but it still would have been faster. And now they get the speed and the accuracy and fidelity all in one.”

The improvements to speed has also meant that there are lower lead times and faster delivery times for customers she said.

Commenting on the Ozius Biome platform, Iain Rouse, AWS country director public sector for ANZ said, “Climate is one of the challenges for Australian government, industry and citizens, and we need innovative solutions to address environmental challenges. Biome’s 3D vegetation solution is redefining geospatial science and the many organisations interacting with the Australian environment.

“By delivering high-fidelity data on vegetation structure, canopy connectivity and foliage density, Biome has the potential to revolutionise how we respond to disasters and changes in the landscape. We look forward to creating a future where scalability, reliability, and speed are at the forefront of every organisation’s sustainable agenda.”

Velvet-Belle travelled to Canberra for the AWS Public Sector Summit as a guest of AWS Australia.