“Being a satellite-based system, you can get there without fiber,” Shotwell continued. “You basically talk to the satellites in our orbit, the satellites will talk to each other and that information will reach another place on Earth where it is needed.”
Starlink “offers a much lower end than a 40-50mm round trip [the] Internet, “SpaceX said in a filing to the Federal Communications Commission this month. Speed tests recently conducted by Starlink beta users have found latency ranging from 20mm to 94mm.
Starlink is not yet ready to connect any two points on Earth. The company has launched more than 700 satellites, but the ongoing customer beta for US customers is only available in the state of Washington. The “fairly huge public beta” launched by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk a few weeks ago is also only available in the northern U.S. And the potential will be for southern Canada. But SpaceX is regularly launching 60 new satellites at a time and has US permission to deploy about 12,000.
Microsoft also designed and built the Underwater Data Center, although it does not appear to be part of the Microsoft Microsoft Ft / Starlink collaboration.
Micro .ft, SES also uses medium-earth satellites
While SpaceX satellites use low-Earth orbit, Micro .ft is partnering with SES, which provides medium-Earth orbiting satellites. Here’s how Microsoft described its collaboration with SES:
SESA worked with the Microsoft Azure team to demonstrate simulated fiber outage in MDC, and the network was able to automatically convert SES’s satellite connectivity from fiber to Azure. Both companies are developing solutions in which SES today provides connectivity or resilience to terrestrial connectivity to autonomous MDCs at multi-hundreds of megabits per second (Mbps) and scalable for multi-gigabytes in seconds with OSB MPover.
Under the Azure Orbital Agreement, SES will be both a micro .ft partner, building gateway infrastructure and customer, as it will locate its MEO O3B Empower Teleport in conjunction with Azure Datacenters. Together the companies will support connectivity between cloud datacenter regions and cloud edge devices, enabling direct “one-hope” connectivity with Azure.
Microsoft says its MDC will be able to automatically switch from non-satellite to satellite connections
This connectivity is achieved through a network high availability module that evaluates continuous network performance. In the event of a network interruption, the network high availability module will move traffic from the affected network to a backup satellite connection. This resilience ensures a consistent delivery of the hyperscale services required by Azure. Alternatively, MDC can use satellite communications as the primary connection where no other network is available.
MDC can also be run in “completely disconnected” mode in such circumstances, Microsoft said.
More micro .ft / spacex collaboration
Microsoft said the MDC units were “in initial use with defense and private sector organizations” but did not say when they would move forward more widely. The company said businesses should “contact a representative of your microft” if the business is interested in the technology.
Working with Micro .ft SpaceX on more than just MDC. The two companies also plan to further connect Starlink to MicroS.Fit’s global network, including Azure Edge devices – to integrate SpaceX’s ground stations with Azure Networking capabilities, Micros.ft said.
SpaceX recently launched a U.S. Won agreement with Space Development Agency to build new satellites – missile tracking data for hypersonic glide vehicles separate from Starlink and advanced missile hazards for the next pay generation. “Microfte said today that it will join the project as a SpaceX subcontractor and that the two companies plan for further collaboration.
The two companies are expected to serve government customers, especially in defense and intelligence, as they anticipate growing satellite connectivity and capability opportunities in the private sector in areas including telecommunications, energy and agriculture, the microfoft announcement said.
Image list by micro .ft
