The European Space Agency (ESA) partnered with Canonical to enhance its mission operations infrastructure, aiming to double its satellite missions by 2030 through advanced technological solutions.
Canonical deployed its distributions of Kubernetes and Ceph, alongside PostgreSQL and Kafka, to create a robust, scalable, and automated platform for ESA’s Mission Operations Infrastructure – IT (MOI-IT) team. This open-source architecture streamlined workload deployment, integrated seamlessly with existing IT services, and reduced system complexity while providing 24/7 monitoring and automatic updates.
The collaboration yielded significant cost savings by minimizing reliance on proprietary software licenses, improved operational efficiency through automation, and enhanced system resilience with Kubernetes’ failover capabilities. By consolidating storage technologies and leveraging public cloud scalability, ESA gained the flexibility to support its ambitious mission goals while maintaining control over critical on-site infrastructure.
This case study demonstrates how Canonical’s open-source solutions empower ESA to achieve cost-effective, reliable, and future-ready infrastructure for space exploration.
See the full case study here.
