Paris, France - November 14, 2025 -Eviden, the Atos Groupproduct brand leading in advanced computing, has been awarded a contract by the SKA Observatory (SKAO) to deliver the Science Data Processing Centre (SDP) Computing work package for both the SKA-Low and SKA-Mid telescope sites in Australia and South Africa.
The signature ceremony for the contract took place in France, an SKAO observing member that announced its decision to join the Observatory in 2021. Formal entry to the SKAO awaits parliamentary ratification of the intergovernmental agreement following the French government signing accession agreement with the Observatory in April 2022. The CNRS, which leads the SKA-France coordination, signed a collaboration agreement with SKAO in March 2022 which facilitates interaction with the French science community.
The SKAO is currently building the two largest radio telescope arrays in the world, which will pose an enormous data challenge.
For the SKAO, the SDP is a critical element of the Observatory's scientific mission. When the telescopes begin early operations in the next few years, the SDP will process vast volumes of data, enabling researchers to decode cosmic signals and push the boundaries of astrophysics. The telescopes will need to process data equivalent to more than one million 4K Netflix streams, reducing it "on the fly" down to only a few thousand streams' worth, and ultimately archiving ~700 PB a year.
Initial deployments of SDP hardware are expected in Australia and South Africa during 2026.
Through this partnership, the SKAO will be able to scale up its processing infrastructure as the telescopes grow, by relying on Eviden's scalable approach: a catalogue of predefined scalable units (SUs) that can be deployed on demand at each site.
Within this, Eviden offers a combination of Intel powered high-performance computing and software capabilities with Data Direct Networks (DDN) storage systems, ensuring low-latency and high-efficiency data handling, with local services delivered by its partner Evernex to ensure operational readiness and regional support. Eviden will also provide the system-level software that ensures all the hardware components work together as a single system.
Nick Rees, SKAO head of Computing and Software said: "The hardware required by the SKAO must meet complex requirements. This includes designing a system that can be deployed in units as needed over time, ensuring that advances in computing and our understanding of the complexities can be incorporated into the SDP hardware during the multi-year construction period. We're dealing with an extremely big data challenge and Eviden is bringing a mature, tried and tested solution to the table. We're very pleased to have them join our delivery journey."
Emmanuel Le Roux, Group SVP, global head of Advanced Computing and AI, Eviden at Atos Group commented: "This project places Eviden's technology at the core of one of the world's most significant scientific endeavours of the decade, made possible through international cooperation: to build the two largest radio telescope arrays in the world, located in South Africa and Australia. As we start to deliver the first technologies through this contract, it reflects our commitment to supporting frontier science with co-designed, robust, scalable and energy-efficient computing solutions. We are proud to contribute to SKAO's vision with a solution designed and delivered from Europe, and deployed across two continents to help unlock new discoveries about our universe."
As the SKAO moves towards delivering science, the partnership with Eviden marks a critical milestone in building the digital foundation for this groundbreaking radio astronomy endeavour. Together, the SKAO and Eviden are enabling a future where data becomes discovery, and where the mysteries of the cosmos come into sharper focus.
Jean-Luc Moullet, Chief Research and Innovation Officer at French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space, highlighted: "The ministry is very proud of the contribution of France to SKAO, a world-leading infrastructure in radio-astronomy built with a strong partnership of countries and with great discoveries to come. It is a great satisfaction to see the alliance between astronomers and the French company Eviden, a leader in high-performance computing. This project comes with fantastic innovation prospects in this field to perform high-performance computing on very large volumes of data with the goal to minimize the environmental impact. This shows how very ambitious fundamental research can push technology to its limits and benefit to society."
Antoine Petit, President and CEO of CNRS said: "The CNRS and the SKA-France partners are proud of the strong engagement of French industry in tackling one of the most remarkable technological challenges of the SKA project: producing analysis-ready data from the immense data streams generated by the two telescopes. This contribution, which builds on advanced high-performance computing capabilities in the host countries, particularly in France with the CNRS- supercalculator Jean Zay, will play a key role in enabling the redistribution of hundreds of petabytes of data each year to the scientific community worldwide. It also reflects France commitment to the design of SKAO's future computing infrastructure with a clear focus on environmental sustainability."
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About Eviden
Evidenis the Atos Group brand for hardware and software products with c. € 1 billion in revenue, operating in 36 countries and comprising four business units: advanced computing, cybersecurity products, mission-critical systems and vision AI. As a next-generation technology leader, Eviden offers a unique combination of hardware and software technologies for businesses, public sector and defense organizations and research institutions, helping them to create value out of their data. Bringing together more than 4,500 world-class talents and holding more than 2,100 patents, Eviden provides a strong portfolio of innovative and eco-efficient solutions in AI, computing, security, data and applications.
About Atos Group
Atos Group is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 67,000 employees and annual revenue of c. €10 billion, operating in 61 countries under two brands - Atos for services and Eviden for products. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high performance computing, Atos Group is committed to a secure and decarbonized future and provides tailored AI-powered, end-to-end solutions for all industries. Atos Group is the brand under which Atos SE (Societas Europaea) operates. Atos SE is listed on Euronext Paris.
The purpose of Atos Groupis to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.
About the SKAO
The SKAO, formally known as the SKA Observatory, is a global collaboration of Member States whose mission is to build and operate cutting-edge radio telescopes to transform our understanding of the Universe, and deliver benefits to society through global collaboration and innovation.
Headquartered in the UK, its two telescope arrays are being constructed in Australia and South Africa and will be the two most advanced radio telescope networks on Earth. A later expansion is envisioned in both countries and other African partner countries. Together with other state-of-the-art research facilities, the SKAO's telescopes will explore the unknown frontiers of science and deepen our understanding of key processes, including the formation and evolution of galaxies, fundamental physics in extreme environments and the origins of life. Through the development of innovative technologies and its contribution to addressing societal challenges, the SKAO will play its part to address the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and deliver significant benefits across its membership and beyond.
The SKAO recognises and acknowledges the Indigenous peoples and cultures that have traditionally lived on the lands on which the SKAO facilities are located.
About CNRS
A major player in basic research worldwide, the National Centre for Scientific Researchis the only French organisation active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist enables it to bring together all of the scientific disciplines in order to shed light on and understand the challenges of today's world, in connection with public and socio-economic stakeholders. Together, the different sciences contribute to sustainable progress that benefits society as a whole.
Press contacts
Constance Arnoux - constance.arnoux@eviden.com- +33 (0)6 44 12 16 35
Cassandra Cavallaro - Cassandra.cavallaro@skao.int- +44 (0)7384511285
CNRS Press Office - presse@cnrs.fr- +33 (0)1 44 96 51 51
Attachments
- PR - Eviden signs contract with the SKAO to support the data infrastructure of next-generation radio telescopes (https://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/2e46b69d-8365-4308-8e16-7a6264638d84)
- SKA_TELESCOPES_COMPOSITE (no labels) (https://ml-eu.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/92d40b8c-f2bb-4414-96c1-1b7a249808c8)
