Building Scalable Research Platforms in the Cloud with AWS

The Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) is one of Greece’s most prominent research institutions, renowned for its multidisciplinary innovation in science and technology. Through its Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT), FORTH spearheads national projects in fields such as energy, environment, and sustainable development. Its air quality monitoring efforts, including the AQMMON platform, are central to ongoing research into pollution, climate, and urban health.

Organisations that manage environmental monitoring networks often face a familiar set of problems: disjointed data from multiple sensor types, limited ability to act on real-time conditions, and outdated dashboards that make visual interpretation harder than it should be. FORTH, a leading research institute in Greece, encountered these challenges as it scaled up its AQMMON air quality monitoring platform.

The goal was to build a unified, cloud-based system that could ingest and process real-time sensor data, deliver structured insights, and support advanced visualisation. The solution also had to remain flexible enough to accommodate future sensor types, analytical needs, and user-facing features.

• Integrating diverse IoT environmental sensors
• Real-time, reliable data ingestion and storage
• Customisable, user-friendly data visualisation
• Secure, scalable cloud infrastructure

To meet the project's requirements, PCG designed and delivered a fully cloud-native IoT architecture built on AWS. The solution ingests real-time data from distributed sensors, processes and stores it securely, and delivers rich visualisations through a web interface. This enables researchers and the public to monitor environmental changes across time and location with ease.

• Device Integration with AWS IoT Core
  IoT sensors across monitoring stations publish measurements to MQTT topics handled by AWS IoT Core.
• Data Routing and Processing with AWS Lambda
  Incoming messages trigger AWS Lambda functions that map values and store structured data in Amazon RDS (MariaDB).
• Data Backup with Amazon S3
  Raw payloads from sensors are automatically backed up in Amazon S3 for redundancy and historical auditability.
• REST API via Amazon API Gateway and Lambda
  A lightweight API enables frontend components to query data by sensor, time range, and metric type.
• Interactive Frontend with Custom React Components
  Replacing the original plan to use QuickSight, bespoke charting and heatmap components were implemented for richer user control and interactivity.
• Secure Network with Amazon VPC
  A private cloud network isolates key resources, including the database and Lambda functions, with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) handling secure access control.

The implementation delivered measurable technical improvements, replacing manual or fragmented workflows with a scalable, real-time architecture. These changes reduced operational complexity, improved system responsiveness, and laid the groundwork for long-term maintainability.

• Automated data flow from device to database
  End-to-end pipeline eliminates the need for manual data transfers or external parsing tools.
• Improved reliability and resilience
  Built-in backup and error handling ensures data persistence even during transient issues.
• Low-latency access to structured data
  Researchers can query environmental metrics within seconds of publication.
• Decoupled, maintainable architecture
  Each component (IoT, processing, querying, visualisation) is independently scalable and upgradable.
• Improved security posture
  Network segmentation, access control, and audit-friendly storage meet institutional IT requirements.

Research Impact and Future Benefits

This solution equips FORTH with a powerful tool for environmental science—enabling responsive, transparent, and user-friendly exploration of air quality data. Beyond technical success, the project enhances scientific reach and supports new directions in environmental research and citizen engagement.

• Streamlined Monitoring
  Environmental trends are visualised dynamically across time and space, improving public understanding and scientific insight.
• Flexible and Extensible
  The architecture supports future sensor types, new data formats, and additional visualisation tools with minimal effort.
• Cloud-Native Scalability
  Designed to scale with research needs, the solution leverages AWS services with built-in fault tolerance and performance tuning.
• Knowledge Transfer Ready
  Full documentation and training resources were handed over, empowering FORTH to maintain and evolve the platform independently.

Overall, the project demonstrates how tailored cloud solutions can advance scientific missions—enabling institutions like FORTH to scale their research impact, improve service delivery, and confidently adopt next-generation data infrastructure.

Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.

With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.

We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.