Astro2020 APC White Paper: Astronomy should be in the clouds

TL;DR

This paper advocates for integrating cloud computing platforms into astronomical research to enhance data management, processing, and scientific collaboration across multiple missions.

Contribution

It proposes a coordinated approach to adopt cloud computing in astronomy, highlighting potential benefits for data handling and scientific discovery.

Findings

Cloud platforms can significantly reduce costs and improve efficiency in astronomical data management.

Cross-mission cloud integration enables unprecedented scientific collaboration.

Adopting cloud solutions can accelerate data processing and analysis in astronomy.

Abstract

Commodity cloud computing, as provided by commercial vendors such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, has revolutionized computing in many sectors. With the advent of a new class of big data, public access astronomical facility such as LSST, DKIST, and WFIRST, there exists a real opportunity to combine these missions with cloud computing platforms and fundamentally change the way astronomical data is collected, processed, archived, and curated. Making these changes in a cross-mission, coordinated way can provide unprecedented economies of scale in personnel, data collection and management, archiving, algorithm and software development and, most importantly, science.