SparkIndata, led by Atos, selected as a world-class R&D initiative by the French government

"SparkIndata", a Cloud platform developed by an Atos led consortium of 11 partners*, was selected as one of 12 R&D projects chosen from 34 candidate projects, to be funded by the major national programme “Investments for the Future” in the "Cloud Computing & Big Data" category. Atos, an international leader in digital services, sees this as recognition of its proven innovative approach and vast expertise in Big Data and Cloud Computing through Canopy – the Atos Cloud.

"SparkIndata is one of 12 projects selected by the Commissariat-General for Investment for their high growth potential. The aim of these innovative R&D projects is to strengthen our digital activities. Cloud Computing and Big Data transform our environment profoundly and have an impact on all industrial activities and services. Mastering them is a key element of our competitiveness", comments Louis Schweitzer, High Commissioner of “Investments for the Future”.

Gilles Grapinet, Senior Executive Vice President of Atos highlights: "Atos, a key player in Cloud Computing and Big Data, is proud to be leading the SparkIndata consortium made up of parties recognised as the best in their field. SparkIndata aims to bring together in one single platform different sources of Earth observation data that are cross-referenced with geographical, oceanographic and geoscientific data, to offer a catalogue of innovative services to companies from numerous sectors of activity. We have the ambition to federate other national initiatives at European level, with the help of SparkIndata. "

Within the framework of COPERNICUS (the European Programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation, led jointly by the EU and the ESA)**, our partners and clients have access to large storage and calculation capacity to process high volumes of data and large number of users. They benefit from high added value and real time analysis capacities, pay-per-use and consideration spread across complex ecosystems, thanks to Canopy Helix Nebula platform, made available by Atos. This Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS) was developed to meet the needs of European space agencies and is capable of managing all the peak loads thanks to its widespread infrastructure and its calculation capacity. SparkIndata will provide access to environmental data taken from satellites and sensors that enable under the earth’s surface and the ocean floors to be observed. It will also provide a development environment and the opportunity of new services for the benefit of stakeholders in downstream markets (agriculture, urban planning, security, climate, risk prevention, health...).

The explosion of the volume of data available and the development of SMACS digital technologies (Social-Mobile-Analytics-Cloud-Security) are at the core of what Atos considers "the third digital revolution" (the 1st being computing and the 2nd Internet). Atos has the objective of seizing the opportunities which arise from this disruption in order to always be ahead in supporting its customers and partners in their digital transformation and thus consolidate its position as global leader in digital services, secure Cloud and Big Data.