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TAMPA, Fla. — SES has expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), enabling satellite customers to connect directly to its cloud-based applications.
According to SES, it is the first satellite operator to pass technical and business reviews for directly connecting with AWS cloud services, without going through a virtual private network (VPN).
The company said its ‘AWS Direct Connect’ partner status gives customers on its satellite network, which operates in geostationary (GEO) and medium earth orbit (MEO), a dedicated connection to AWS at speeds from 50 megabits per second up to 100 gigabits per second.
Other cloud providers run similar programs for directly connecting satellite networks to their services.
In September 2019, SES said it became an ‘ExpressRoute’ partner for Microsoft’s Azure cloud services.
These partnerships enable satellite customers to efficiently run applications from areas with limited for no terrestrial communications, while giving cloud providers a backup network if their fiber or other infrastructure fails.
SpaceX recently said it would install ground stations in Google’s data centers for its Starlink broadband satellites as part of their cloud partnership.
SES is also jointly investing in ground stations for Azure Orbital, Microsoft’s managed service solution for operating satellites.
Amazon has a similar service called AWS Ground Station and is also planning its own satellite broadband constellation, Project Kuiper.
“Achieving AWS Direct Connect Partner status is another milestone in our cloud-first strategy to provide customers with direct access to multiple cloud providers so they have flexibility to run workloads in different clouds based on region, function, use case or other business factors,” said JP Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks.
“Our multi-orbit network provides a combination of global coverage and high-performance, low-latency connections that can get customers’ data into AWS from nearly anywhere.”