Decreased Risk And Latency With Cloud Storage In Space

By Cliff Beek, President, Cloud Constellation Corporation

In today’s nanosecond environment, getting important data from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible can be the difference between success and failure — for business as well as for government. Transmitting this data requires a series of communications hubs that are working at optimal levels. This may mean several seconds of latency, a definite competitive disadvantage. However, new advances in technology give VARs and Cloud Service Providers an opportunity to show their customers a more efficient way.

Standard communications architecture slows the flow of information with its multiple hops and interchanges through terrestrial networks. Simultaneously, this method exposes the data to monitoring and manipulation along the way. Even the most efficient cloud network requires third-party data centers to replicate globally to provision worldwide offices effectively.

This is the current state of affairs. But imagine data could be securely transmitted from a single corporate network hub to any location worldwide in less than a second. The solution to this problem will be found through new space-based data center technology, creating a telecom backbone around the globe. Such a network will allow data to flow freely around the world without restriction and without fear of interception, enabling CIOs to virtually provision any remote office in less than one third of a second, regardless of proximity, without any latency, jurisdictional or cybersecurity issues.

An independent space-based network infrastructure for cloud service providers and their enterprise and government customers is now possible. This new paradigm would allow customers to experience secure storage and provisioning of sensitive data around the world. By placing data on satellites accessible from everywhere via ultra-secure dedicated terminals, many of today’s data transport challenges will be solved. Space-based storage offers a convenient solution to the issues of both security and jurisdiction while offering unprecedented transit speed.

This is not a completely new idea, but rather a re-envisioning of current practices. Organizations and government entities already enjoy the communications benefits of the satellites ringing the earth. Using the technologies that would enable space-based cloud storage, they can enjoy even faster and more secure communications and offer services that would not otherwise be possible.

Delivery of drone audio and video becomes much faster with space-based network infrastructure. At present, there is a latency of more than two seconds in the delivery of real-time drone video. Like driving a car with a two-second blinder, maneuverability and agility are constrained. Using a sky-based telecom system, latency will be reduced to less than one second.

This is great news not just for drone data — the space-based network would expedite 4K HDTV between two live audiences as well. Currently, studios employ parlor tricks to mimic live two-audience interaction, and video error correction must be applied at each server stop in both directions to meet the studio’s demanding 4K HDTV specifications. Using a space-based system, latency would be reduced to about one second and require just one video error correction at the end. Studios would be enabled for true live audience interaction — a major market differentiator.

In addition, video streaming services would be able to bypass congested, expensive networks, and expedited live video delivery would become a reality. Another beneficial development is that Cloud Service Providers will be able to sell services without adding more capital or operational expenditures for competitive expansion, including:

• highly secure transmission and storage of mission-critical or highly sensitive information, free from ground infrastructure networks and vulnerable locations
• a universal global antenna that can connect to any radio source anywhere without requiring it to return to earth
• rapid delivery and storage of video between any two points at the furthest reaches of the globe

E.T.: The Extraterrestrial Solution

Today’s data communications strategies would have seemed miraculous just a few years ago, yet ongoing technology trends create demand that makes those strategies inadequate now. Latency and security risks abound. However, using a space-based approach removes the middleman, as it were, enabling enterprises and governments to have the speed and privacy they need to succeed. It’s an extraterrestrial offering VARs and CSPs can add to their solutions mix, creating differentiation and cost savings.

Cliff Beek is the president of Cloud Constellation Corporation. He has extensive experience with the management and financing of equity-backed ventures within areas of satellite, mobile broadband, mobile app development, and cloud infrastructure entities. Beek founded Star Asia Technologies and Laser Light Communications and served as the EVP at CoCo Communications. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Cliff can be reached online at @Cliff_Edges.