Microsoft is Working With SpaceX to Connect The Azure Cloud to Musks Starlink Internet Satellite.
KEY POINTS
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Microsoft is collaborating with SpaceX to
connect the Azure cloud computing network to the company Elon Musk 's growing
Starlink satellite internet service.
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The partnership comes as Microsoft expands into
the space sector, with the company unveiling a new service called Azure Orbital
a few weeks ago to directly connect satellites to the cloud.
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Microsoft and SpaceX have been set up by Azure
Space and the latest alliance to further compete with Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Blue
Origin firms, which have announced plans for similar satellite services and
more.
Microsoft is partnering with
SpaceX to connect the Azure cloud computing network of the tech giant to the
growing Starlink satellite internet service provided by the firm of Elon
Musk.
Starlink is SpaceX 's ambitious
proposal to create a thousand-satellite interconnected internet network
intended to provide high-speed internet to everyone on the planet.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and
COO of SpaceX, said in a video, "The partnership we are announcing today
will enable us to work together to provide new offers for both the public and
private sectors to provide connectivity via Starlink for use on Azure." "We'll
partner with [Microsoft] where it makes sense: co-selling to our joint clients,
co-selling to new companies and potential customers."
To date, more than 800 Starlink
satellites have been launched by SpaceX, a fraction of the total needed for
global coverage, but enough to start providing services in certain regions,
including in the northwest U.S. The company has an ongoing private beta test of
the service, and is also collaborating on satellite internet distribution with
organisations in rural areas of Washington State.
The collaboration comes as
Microsoft grows into the space business, with the company launching a new
service named Azure Orbital a few weeks ago to directly connect satellites to
the cloud. In particular, Azure Orbital and the new SpaceX partnership formed
the company of Microsoft and Musk to compete further with the business of Jeff
Bezos.
In addition to Bezos' private
investment in his rocket manufacturer Blue Origin, Amazon provides a service to
connect its AWS cloud to satellites and is working on a rival to Starlink
called Kuiper.
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SpaceX and Microsoft have been
testing the software needed to bind Starlink and Azure in recent months.
The service links the network of
Starlink to Microsoft datacenters, including a new 'Azure Modular Datacenter'
product that is basically a semi-trailer-sized mobile device. The global
coverage of Starlink helps make these Azure Modular Datacenters possible, as
Microsoft says the product is designed "for customers in hybrid or
difficult environments, like remote areas, who need cloud computing capabilities."
Tom Keane, Microsoft's corporate
vice president of Azure Global, said in a company video: "SpaceX is, of
course, the name that people automatically think of when they think of
creativity and the transformation that is happening to bring space technology
into the 21st century."
Microsoft said several Azure
Modular Datacenters are "in early use with organisations in the defence
and private sector," with the company seeing the device as a response to
military needs, humanitarian initiatives, mobile command centres, mining, and
more.
Microsoft is expanding its space business further
Microsoft
The company announced the
development of its Azure Space unit on Tuesday, building on the launch of the
Azure Orbital.
"The space community is
growing rapidly, and creativity is reducing public and private sector
organizations' access barriers," Keane said. "The invention created
by private space companies has democratised access to space, and the use of
space to build new possibilities and opportunities to meet the needs of both
the public and private sectors has for a long time been powering the planet,
which used to be the bastion of governments alone."
Microsoft is collaborating with
Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES in addition to its SpaceX
collaboration. In addition to the services SES is providing for Azure Orbital, the
company will also link its O3b satellites to Azure.
"We plan to make Azure the
forum and ecosystem of choice for the space community's mission needs,"
Keane said.
Source: CNBN MEDIA NETWORK
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