Brenda Marie Rivers
Satellite operators have expressed support and concerns over the use of cloud infrastructures to handle their data, Space News reported Monday.
Previously, companies like Viasat, Intelsat and SES partnered with Microsoft to enable remote customers to access the latter’s Azure cloud for a range of applications such as oil and gas drilling, shipping and mining.
Greg Quiggle, vice president of product management at Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, told attendees at the Satellite Innovation conference in Mountain View, Calif. that teleports, or ground infrastructure used to house satellite operations, have not phased out analog hardware in 20 years.
He noted that concerns on public cloud use are due to companies’ fear of losing control over their operations, and that operators “should be comfortable†with such environments because of major cloud providers’ substantial investment in cybersecurity.
Steven Soenens, vice president of product marketing at Belgium-based network management firm Skyline Communications, said that while cloud providers are “investing much more than anyone else could do individually†on security, a major outage may occur if a failure in operations occur in the cloud.
Satellite providers using cloud services include KSAT USA, which partnered with Amazon Web Services, and Swedish Space Corp.’s U.S. division.
