Cloud Basics for Geosciences

Course Description

1. What is the Cloud?

A summary of what the cloud is including an introduction to the three most popular clouds in use today in the industry. The summary will include a breakdown of the tools available to cloud users and some basic concepts about cost, and a few examples of workloads that you should consider using the cloud for.

2. The Difference between Public Clouds and Private Clouds.

There are fundamental differences between clouds that are Private and Public, and numerous misconceptions about which is best, more secure, and the most scalable. Included a few real work examples of systems that are Private and Public and why one should consider the options carefully.

3. What does the Cloud Enable – Why Use it?

The cloud is such an important part of our ecosystem now and will continue to be in the future. The key reasons why it should be used will include scalability, security, evergreening, reliability, cost, and the tools enabled by the cloud systems such as AI and ML.

4. Cloud Security Awareness

There are a lot of misconceptions about cloud security. We will look at a few security breaches, why they occurred, how to prevent them, and the additional security features available to cloud users to help protect their data.

5. The Movement to Geophysics in “Real Time” in the Cloud

With the advance of the SpaceX constellation, real time data streaming in remote areas – even high volume low latency – will become possible. This is going to mean survey data can be looked at, QC’ed, and used essentially in real time as it arrives in a cloud account. This is going to move the Geo closer to the data flows, and create a more dynamic exploration system that can make decision while the survey is still being recorded, rather than far later.

6. The Movement to “Big Data” from “Small Data”

The oil sector has never in its history had the opportunity to have access to all of their data, all of the time. Using small sample data sets, subsets of surveys, to explore will no longer be necessary as the cloud continues to grow. This change needs a change of mindset in the industry to both understand why this is valuable, and how to take advantage of it.

Course Objectives

In this course, you will learn to:

• Describe the major public and private cloud providers and their relative strengths
• Understand the difference between public and private clouds
• Describe the basic global infrastructure of the cloud
• Compare and contrast conventional on-premise infrastructure to that on offer in the cloud
• Be better prepared to think about problem solving in a new way - with the use cloud technology

Course Outline

1. What is the cloud?
2. The difference between public clouds and private clouds.
3. What does the cloud enable – why use it?
4. Fundamental concepts of cloud based compute, storage, database, and networking.
5. Cloud security awareness.
6. The movement to geophysics in “real time” in the cloud.
7. The movement to “big data” from “small data”.
8. The concepts behind big data.

Participants’ Profile

Geoscientists of all skill levels that are seeking to better understand why the cloud is changing the industry and how the cloud can be used in their roles to improve project outcomes.

Prerequisites

Participants should have casual familiarity with linear algebra and calculus.

About the Instructor

Guy is a graduate of Geophysics from Macquarie University in Sydney, and has completed a Masters of Business Administration (Technology Management) from Deakin University in Melbourne and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Guy is a successful leader with a proven track record in the growth of start up and turn around businesses in the IT, medical and information management sectors.