Migrating big astronomy data to the cloud

Migrating big astronomy data to the cloud

Six lessons from astronomy’s embrace of cloud computing

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is geared up to collect 20 terabytes per night as part of its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), once it becomes operational in 2022. Instead of setting up a computing infrastructure that would cost many millions, astronomers are putting their massive data sets into the cloud. The move opens up opportunities for research at smaller institutions. “I could set up a notebook in South Africa to run on the LSST Science Platform that had all the same tools as if I was in Princeton,” says project manager William O’Mullane. “All I’d need is a web browser.”

Nature | 7 min read