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@hareldan@mapstodon.space

Post #891488

2024-08-12 17:29 UTC

Google restructures Earth Engine to be more difficult. Microsoft is closing down Planetary Computer division. AWS, even if their "Earth" thing was relevant, is also going that way sooner or later. When billion dollar corporations can't monetize products, no amount of wishful thinking and fuzzy feelings will keep them alive. (Did someone say Gen-AI?) The age of web based, at-scale on-demand, low code Remote Sensing is coming to an end. #Enshittification https://tomaugspurger.net/posts/leaving-microsoft/

Replies (6)

  • @hareldan@mapstodon.space 2024-08-12 17:34

    The data and APIs will remain, perhaps even maintained and expanded, but you know they will eventually axe it

    Open ##1265968

  • @JensWiesehahn@fosstodon.org 2024-08-12 19:06

    @hareldan I would be in favor e.g. NASA, ESA ... join forces and hire @TomAugspurger et al to build up a public replacement with @open_eo

    Open ##1265969

  • @djh@chaos.social 2024-08-12 21:02

    @hareldan Somewhat related: AWS still has their OpenData offering where they're hosting remote sensing datasets e.g. Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 datasets (S3 bucket + SNS topic) and more importantly pay for the costs. That alone can be a reason for a startup to jump on the AWS bandwagon.

    Open ##1265970

  • @hareldan damn. What about SentinelHub? Now owned by Planet Labs I believe?

    Open ##1265971

  • @nickrsan@mapstodon.space 2024-08-13 23:18

    @hareldan what's the Earth Engine restructuring you're referring to? I know about them requiring the use of Projects, but actually saw that as their attempt to make the service profitable (which, IMO, was better than them shutting it down just because they're Google). I think I'd also disagree with that conclusion. Earth Engine was high code, IMO, but low-data management, and I think these companies showed a path to enough people who want it. With STAC + Dask, it's much easier to deploy.

    Open ##1265978

  • @craignicol@glasgow.social 2024-08-14 20:37

    @hareldan 50 years ago, they'd have have kept it running as R&D for the tax breaks. Like AT&T and Xerox, who did some very cool stuff alongside what they actually sold.

    Open ##1265982