A research environment on AWS RES: KNMI's leap to the cloud

The challenge & business impact

For decades, the KNMI relied on traditional workstations to analyze large amounts of data and make weather forecasts. However, maintaining and upgrading this physical hardware presented increasing challenges. The infrastructure limited scalability, reduced flexibility, and slowed down crucial research activities. The KNMI recognized the need for change and called on SUE to provide a cloud-based solution that would remove these limitations and prepare the organization for future growth.

Facts and figures

Instantly scalable research workstations without hardware limitations
Cloud makes global collaboration easier and faster
Continuity of research, even in the event of infrastructure problems

Serge van Namen, Chief Technology Officer at SUE

We assisted the KNMI in transitioning to the cloud, making research faster, more flexible, and ready for the future. No more hardware limitations, but room for flexible innovation.

Success factors

Results & business value

With guidance from SUE, KNMI modernized its research environment by adopting AWS cloud solutions. The implementation started with a Proof of Concept (POC), in which the existing environment was simulated in the cloud. Using AWS CloudFormation scripts, KNMI was able to roll out and scale virtual workstations on demand, eliminating the need for upfront investments in hardware.

The transition to AWS yielded immediate benefits. Researchers gained flexible access to powerful machine learning tools and computing resources, resulting in faster and more efficient workflows. In addition, the cloud environment offered high availability, ensuring continuity of research even in the event of infrastructure failures.

Today, the KNMI operates with considerably greater agility. Resources are scaled up when necessary, without the limitations of physical hardware. This transformation has not only increased efficiency, but also positions the KNMI to further expand its leading role in weather and climate research in the future.