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Getting started with Satellite/Geospatial Data Lake

What Satellite/Geospatial Data Lake is for, who uses it, what you need before you start, and your first steps.

Applies to Satellite/Geospatial Data Lake as it works today. Moraph updates the platform continuously, and this page is reviewed when it changes.

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On this page
  1. What it is for
  2. Who uses it
  3. Before you start
  4. Steps to get started
  5. Where to go next

Moraph designs, builds and operates a storage and processing environment for satellite imagery and other geospatial data, sized for the volume and throughput your programs need. Imagery is ingested, cataloged and tiered so analysts and analytic jobs can reach it, and the compute your teams use for change-detection models sits next to the data. Your organization decides what is stored, who can see it and which analytic results are acted on; Moraph runs the environment under your authority.

What it is for

Geospatial programs collect imagery faster than general-purpose storage and IT teams can absorb it. Files arrive from several sources in different formats, catalogs drift out of date, and analysts wait for data to be copied to where their tools and models can reach it. Storage is expanded in emergencies rather than planned, and when security staff ask who accessed a holding or how an environment is configured, the answer depends on whoever built it.

  • Ingest from multiple collection and commercial sources is handled by scripts few people understand
  • Imagery is hard to find because catalog metadata is incomplete or inconsistent
  • Analytic jobs compete for compute that sits far from the data
  • Capacity, configuration and access evidence are maintained by hand

Who uses it

  • Geospatial intelligence program offices and mission data owners
  • Imagery and geospatial analysts who search and exploit the holdings
  • Data engineers and data scientists who build ingest pipelines and analytic models
  • Information system security managers and authorizing officials responsible for the environment
  • Inspectors and auditors who review access and configuration

Before you start

  • Your organization uses Satellite/Geospatial Data Lake as a managed platform from Moraph, under an agreement that covers it.
  • Licences for the platform vendor, bought through Moraph or under your own agreement with the vendor.
  • A Moraph account in your organization for each person who works with Moraph on the service.
  • Named technical and security contacts, recorded in the Moraph Portal.

Steps to get started

  1. Agree the scope of the managed service for Satellite/Geospatial Data Lake with Moraph, including which environments and teams it covers.

  2. Name your administrators, technical contact and security contact in the Moraph Portal under People and access.

  3. Review the configuration baseline Moraph proposes for your regulations, and record any changes you need.

  4. Confirm how users will sign in, through your identity provider where the platform supports it.

  5. Agree the pilot group and the cut-over plan with your Moraph delivery lead.

Where to go next

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