The main focus of day four at ESA’s ɸ-week was on the opportunities Earth observation can bring to business and the economy. Participants discussed how companies can use freely-available satellite data to create commercial products. To fully exploit the range of data available, new tools such as ‘data cubes’ are being developed. Carsten Brockmann from Brockmann Consult explains how they are harmonising different data, which makes it easier for scientists and application developers to work with data.