This part two of a discussion based on the author’s talk (Re)Making Cirrus: Five Years Building a Data Orchestration Framework, presented at FOSS4 NA 2025 and FOSS4G 2025. In the first part of this series, we published a blog recapping the history and evolution of Cirrus, Element 84’s data orchestration framework, over the past 8+…
This part two of a discussion based on the author’s talk (Re)Making Cirrus: Five Years Building a Data Orchestration Framework, presented at FOSS4 NA 2025 and FOSS4G 2025. In the first part of this series, we published a blog recapping the history and evolution of Cirrus, Element 84’s data orchestration framework, over the past 8+…
This post is based on the author’s talk (Re)Making Cirrus: Five Years Building a Data Orchestration Framework, presented at FOSS4 NA 2025 and FOSS4G 2025. We’ve remade Cirrus at least three times. Maybe four, depending on how you count. Cirrus, a data orchestration framework we develop and use here at Element 84, recently celebrated its…

If you accept that we are living through the Tyranny of the Chunk, then you might be wondering how we got to this place. Who created the first chunks and what was their motivation? As we explore the history of different data formats we’ll see recurring patterns of thinking around how much information to consolidate…

We discuss our attempt to understand chunks and chunking more deeply including where we are today and where we might go from here.

Just to be upfront and get it out there: no. Despite what you may have heard, Zarr is not (yet) a replacement for the Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) format. Zarr is great for Level 3 and Level 4 n-dimensional data cubes. COG is great for Level 1, Level 2, and other non-data-cube rasters. Enthusiastic Zarr users…
