UPDATED 13:28 EDT / MAY 13 2021

EMERGING TECH

Google Cloud and SpaceX will provide satellite connectivity for enterprises

Google LLC’s cloud business and SpaceX Corp. today revealed that they’re partnering to provide internet connectivity to enterprises via the latter company’s Starlink broadband satellites.

Through the Starlink orbital broadband network, SpaceX is looking to deliver high-speed web access in parts of the world that aren’t covered by terrestrial networks. The company has launched more than 1,500 satellites so far and plans to deploy thousands more.

SpaceX will work with Google to set up ground stations, or antennas, for connecting to Starlink satellites next to Google Cloud data centers. The ground stations will enable network traffic to flow directly from the Starlink constellation to the search giant’s infrastructure. Once all the hardware is set up, the companies will make access to the satellite network available to enterprises as a service.

Google didn’t go into much detail on how enterprises might put the Starlink-provided connectivity to use. However, the low latency promised by SpaceX’s satellites is likely to prove particularly popular among organizations working on edge computing projects.

Edge computing projects generally have two main elements. There are edge devices, such as sensors in a factory that collect data about equipment failures, and there’s a backend cloud application for processing the data from those devices. The application might, for example, be a monitoring system that alerts technicians when a sensor detects a hardware issue. 

Companies could use Starlink to connect edge devices to the internet and transmit the information they generate to Google Cloud. They can use Google Cloud, in turn, to host the backend applications that processes the information from their edge devices. The ground stations the search giant is setting up with SpaceX will be responsible for transporting information from the Starlink network to its infrastructure.

Placing the ground stations in close proximity to Google’s data centers should facilitate faster connectivity than, say, using antennas deployed at a separate location. That’s because the shorter the physical distance that packets have to travel, the lower the latency. 

Low latency is already one of SpaceX’s main selling points for Starlink. The satellites that make up the Starlink network are deployed in low Earth orbit, which is thousands of miles closer to the surface than the geosynchronous orbit where traditional communications satellites are perched. The result is that data can travel to and from Earth considerably faster. 

SpaceX provides a consumer internet service via the Starlink network that it says provides latencies of 20 to 40 milliseconds, which is roughly on par with ground-based networks. The company is also advertising connection speeds of 50 to 150 megabits per second, with plans to triple that by year’s end. It’s quite possible that Google and SpaceX will offer even faster speeds to enterprise customers. 

The first ground stations will reportedly be installed by SpaceX at Google’s New Albany, Ohio, data center. Sources told CNBC that the companies’ deal is for up to seven years. They also revealed that SpaceX will use Google Cloud infrastructure to deliver connectivity to a recently introduced edge computing offering from Microsoft Corp., which is notable given that the company is one of Google’s top rivals in the cloud infrastructure market.

Google and SpaceX expect to launch the Starlink-powered connectivity service in the second half of 2021.

Photo: Google

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU