The news marks the first O3b mPOWER ground station in the region that will enable one-hop connectivity to the cloud from remote sites. The partnership will also support customers in their digitalisation plans, regardless of their location.
“SES’s O3b mPOWER satellite services will enhance cloud-enabled capability to meet critical industry connectivity needs with greater resiliency and enable users in e&’s customer base to benefit from enabling Cloud applications regardless of where they are located," said William Chappell, vice president of Azure Global, Microsoft.
This 3-way partnership will enable e& network services to be easily connected and extended via SES’s second-generation medium earth orbit constellation, O3b mPOWER. The one-hop connectivity to Microsoft's Azure Cloud and SES’s satellite network minimises network latency delays.
“This partnership is an important milestone in providing customers with the ability to optimise business operations in a flexible and agile manner while accessing connectivity to the cloud from remote sites via satellites and leveraging e&’s global network with space coverage," said Nabil Baccouche, group chief carrier & wholesale officer, e&.
"e& will capitalise on the success of O3b mPOWER satellites to deliver fibre-like connectivity to meet growing customer demands globally. Through this partnership, our international customers will have access to cloud-based services and platforms regardless of their location.”
The Ras Al Khaimah ground station is one of the eight initial O3b mPOWER gateway sites which will support both customer data services and the telemetry, tracking and control of the satellite system.
“These are exciting times as the extended relationship with e& will enable all three companies to take another step towards delivering high-performance, low-latency networks virtually anywhere," added John-Paul Hemingway, chief strategy & product officer of SES.
"Regardless of their remote locations, customers worldwide will be able to access and experience cloud-based applications seamlessly. Our ground-breaking O3b mPOWER system will provide new levels of cloud-scale satellite connectivity, intelligent automation and managed services and support digitalisation across a wide range of sectors.”
