• SES says Microsoft relationship will hook up sites in remote locations
  • Allows for satellite integration into mainstream telco, says CEO Collar
  • Collar: SES aims to transform satellite networks for the cloud-scale era

SES satellite

Satellite: Cloud-enabled solutions

Satellite operator SES has used IBC to update clients about its new partnership with Microsoft’s Azure platform for media-based services for broadcasters.

Steve Collar, CEO of SES, explained that the relationship would both connect enterprise and government sites in remote, rural and underserved locations to Azure, and create more value for customers.

“The link with Microsoft has relevance for both the video and network segments of our business,” said Collar. “It means that we can integrate satellite into mainstream telco and telecom and to the point where we are as relevant as terrestrial technologies. In many regards we are more relevant because we can deliver the superpower of reach. We can connect and carry content to people as affordably at the edge of the network as at the centre. Moreover, it isn’t simply that we can do, it is now economic to do it. And this is important for our customers.”

According to Collar, the Microsoft solution is part of SES’s strategy to transform satellite and ground networks for the cloud-scale era. It is also helping SES to fulfil its commitment to operate an open and software-defined environment in which satellite-enabled networks and services are a seamless extension of the global communications ecosystem.

SES is linking with Microsoft’s Azure ExpressRoute, which provides global reach and fibre-like performance via its complete portfolio of multi-orbit satellites, global gateway network, and core terrestrial network infrastructure around the world. SES is the first Azure ExpressRoute satellite partner with Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites and a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation and will be able to extend the reach of Azure customers and bring cloud services to enterprise and government sites.

In 2021 SES is launching seven of its latest O3b mPower satellites which are super-flexible craft with 40,000 potential beams. Collar said: “This has never been done before. It keeps satellite in the mainstream of content delivery.”

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