SpaceX and Google Cloud said the partnership would deliver data, cloud services and applications to customers at the network edge, using Starlink’s ability to provide high-speed broadband internet around the world.
Gwynne Shotwell (pictured; CCL Daniel Oberhaus 2017), president and COO of SpaceX, said: “Combining Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency broadband with Google’s infrastructure and capabilities provides global organizations with the secure and fast connection that modern organizations expect.”
Urs Hölzle, senior VP for infrastructure at Google Cloud, said the partnership will “ensure that organisations with distributed footprints have seamless, secure, and fast access to the critical applications and services they need to keep their teams up and running”.
This new capability, delivered by Google Cloud and Starlink to enterprise customers, is expected to be available in the second half of 2021, said the companies.
SpaceX said it will begin to build Starlink ground stations within Google data centres, enabling the secure, low-latency and reliable delivery of data from more than 1,500 Starlink satellites that are already in service.
Starlink signals are already available in a band 44° and 52° north latitude, but the coverage will expand across the world as more satellites go into service.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already approved 12,000 satellites via the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and SpaceX wants 30,000 more, a move that will give dense global coverage. The satellites are in a low Earth orbit (LEO) of 540-570km above the surface, giving a latency time of a few milliseconds.
Google and SpaceX said they would be targeting “organisations with broad footprints, like public sector agencies, businesses with presences at the network edge, or those operating in rural or remote areas” that “often require access to applications running in the cloud, or to cloud services like analytics, artificial intelligence, or machine learning”.
Hölzle said: “Applications and services running in the cloud can be transformative for organisations, whether they’re operating in a highly networked or remote environment.”
Google Cloud’s said its “high-capacity private network will support the delivery of Starlink’s global satellite internet service, bringing businesses and consumers seamless connectivity to the cloud and internet, and enabling the delivery of critical enterprise applications to virtually any location”.
