Benefits to cloud processing drone data
Cloud-based drone data processing solutions offer new value to users who need efficient, scalable processing and analysis capability but aren’t interested in procuring and managing dedicated infrastructure.
Anyone who has managed even a modest volume of drone data understands the data management, storage, analysis, visualisation, and sharing challenges around turning data into insight. Each step in the workflow has its own particular software and hardware requirements. Whilst generally manageable at the start, drone data workflows very quickly become a time, quality, and cost burden.
There are numerous cloud-based drone data processing solutions on the market, each of which has worked to remove many of these challenges for users. The Australian Scalable Drone Cloud (ASDC) is the first that has a fully open source infrastructure focused on the automation, pipelining and standardisation of drone data. The ASDC platform offers excellent value to users who need efficient, scalable, processing and analysis capability but aren’t interested in procuring and managing dedicated infrastructure. Below are four of the principal benefits to cloud-based drone data processing.
Processing in the field
Drone operations are a field heavy activity and often require travel that is a significant distance from the office. Cloud-based drone processing solutions allow the uploading and processing of drone data in the field. As long as there is access to an internet connection, there is access to real-time uploading of data to cloud processing servers.
Scalable
Drone data collection requires a complex array of hardware and software that can become time consuming and costly to manage, requiring specialised networking intellectual and capital resources. The scalability of high performance cloud computing benefits this work flow in several specific ways:
The convenience of not having to customise or manage the system
The flexibility and speed to adapt to changes in resource requirements
More efficient utilisation of resources by reducing idle time for hardware and software
The cost saving in not having to purchase and administer hardware.
Integrated Pipelines
When you have a data processing team exceeding two or three people, it is necessary to have strict data standardisation, conventions, and workflow protocols to ensure your file systems don’t become compromised. Having a simple yet well-integrated platform with customisable or curated data pipelines allows for the system to take some responsibility for the maintenance of data standards away from the user. This integration simplifies workflows, deployment of data pipelines, and the peer review process.
Failure protected / Backed up
A great fear of anyone who collects significant data is its loss due to hard-drive failure or nefarious activity. With a cloud-based system, you can reduce disaster recovery costs by eliminating the need for building and maintaining secondary data centres. There is much to think about and many expenses involved in establishing a reliable, safe, and secure data storage system. Cloud-based drone data solutions remove all these challenges by properly managing your data storage. This includes hardware failure protection, best practice security protocols, and scalability.
We’d like to hear from you
If you would like to know more about how the ASDC platform might accelerate your next drone data capture project, please email us at info@asdc.science, or help us learn more about what you would like to achieve by filing in this form.
