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Modernizing Earth Observation Access: The GEODES Shift to Open Source and Cloud-Optimized Architectures
.ical
2026-09-03 –, Dahlia2

This presentation covers our experience with the migration of GEODES (the Earth observation catalog of the French space agency, CNES) from proprietary systems to an Open Source, cloud-optimized architecture, highlighting the strategic 'how' and 'why' behind the shift.

The French space agency (CNES) has developed GEODES, an innovative Earth Observation catalogue that leverages open-source technologies in order to simplify access to geospatial data and offer advanced services to end-users.

GEODES offers a wide range of open EO data and advanced products originating from CNES missions and from ESA'S collaborative ground segment initiative, as well as fully integrated processing chains providing on-demand products generation. As a free service dedicated to the global community, including researchers, developers, policymakers and enthusiasts alike, GEODES covers various non-EO-specific activities.

The GEODES portal (geodes-portal.cnes.fr) has launched in November 2024, providing access to a wide range of EO data and advanced products from satellites such as Sentinel, Landsat, Venus and SPOT. At the time, GEODES was built from a mix of open-source technologies and proprietary solutions developed at CNES.

However, as data volumes grew and user needs evolved, GEODES's legacy infrastructure has started to become a bottleneck for rapid feature delivery. Users increasingly required better scalability and interoperability to interconnect with third-party platforms, and more transparent, well-documented interfaces. Furthermore, new, highly requested datasets, such as the very high resolution Pléiades products, as well as new services and cloud optimized data formats expected by the community have driven us to re-evaluate the GEODES architecture.

This is why starting in 2026 we have completely overhauled the GEODES architecture. This revamp focuses on two core pillars: Open Source software and Cloud-Optimized solutions. By moving away from proprietary silos, we have aligned the platform with modern geospatial standards improving performances and interoperability with other geomatic platforms.

In this presentation, we will discuss why and how we successfully transitioned GEODES from a monolithic, on-premises model to a highly scalable, cloud-ready, and open-source architecture.We will then detail the new architecture built on a foundation of open-source software and OGC Standards, including:

Finally, we will provide a live demo of the updated GEODES ecosystem, showcasing the new tools and services available to researchers, developers, and the general public.

Level of technical complexity: 2 - intermediate Give indication of resources (video, web pages, papers, etc.) to read in advance, that will help get up to speed on advanced topics.:

geodes-portal.cnes.fr

Indicate what is (are) the open source project(s) essential in your talk: I make my conference contribution available under the CC BY 4.0 license. The conference contribution comprises the abstract, the text contribution for the conference proceedings, the presentation materials as well as the video recording and live transmission of the presentation:
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Hugo Fournier

I have been working in the Earth Observation data sector for 8 years, including the last 3 years at CNES. My expertise is centered on: interoperability, metadata catalogs, and cloud-optimized data formats. Currently, I am focused on the GEODES project, driving our transition toward open standards and architectures.

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Benjamin HUSSON

I have been working on geospatial ground segments and applications for 9 years. I currently lead GEODES operations team. My role is to make sure that end-users can seamlessly access Earth Observation data and high-value services provided on the platform.