The Server Labs (TSL), European IT company and expert in Cloud computing architecture services, has started a new project with the European Space Agency, an in-depth investigation of the practicalities of moving the Gaia project's Astrometric Data Processing to the Amazon EC2 (Amazon Web Services) Cloud environment. The ambitious Gaia project aims to create a three-dimensional map of unprecedented size and precision charting the composition, formation and evolution of over one billion stars (around 1% of our Galaxy).

In May 2009, The Server Labs successfully completed the first feasibility study with ESA testing the potential of moving the Gaia project's data processing to the Cloud environment. A vital part of this project is the processing of vast quantities of data collected in space. Now ESA is exploring Cloud computing to augment the dedicated data centre traditionally required for this task. With the Cloud's ability to dynamically align resource capacity and demand a shift to the Amazon EC2 Cloud environment would dramatically reduce the cost of the Gaia project's enormous data processing needs and reduce the amount of capital expenditure needed.

"The Gaia AGIS Cloud experiment has been very successful for us. It indicates that bringing the data processing to The Cloud can provide us with savings of up 50% compared to using in house hardware. An additional advantage is that it gives us the ability to scale to far more processors that we could have in house which means essentially that we can finish the job sooner", stated William O'Mullane, Gaia Science Operations Development Director for ESA.

In the follow-up study for ESA, TSL will further test the capacity of its data processing, testing the horizontal scalability of Gaia's data processing grid to limits impossible with the current in-house cluster. In this new science project TSL will run ESA's Gaia data processing in Amazon's Cloud, incorporating RightScale's and Oracle's technology. RightScale, a provider in Cloud computing management, enables the deployment and management of business-critical applications across multiple Clouds.

"It's exciting to see the increasing use of Cloud Computing in Europe, especially at important organisations such as ESA. The Server Labs have demonstrated strong technology expertise in the design and implementation of IT architectures across many industries, making them an ideal services organisation for this project. By using RightScale as the Cloud management platform for this and other cloud deployments, TSL can ensure that its customers are consistently implementing Cloud best practices for maximum performance and flexibility. TSL's technical ability, combined with its outstanding track record and customer satisfaction, are the primary reasons we chose them as a RightScale service partner in Europe", stated Michael Crandell, CEO and Founder, RightScale.