But the cloud means a lot more to the military today than just access to files and data from anywhere. That’s because the role of the cloud is evolving as the government and military are increasingly focused on modernization and digital transformation.

Today, the bare metal that once housed all government and military applications and systems – whether they were mainframes or servers in dedicated data centers – is being replaced by modern infrastructures that connect physical resources with on-premise, off-premise, or hybrid cloud architectures. And there’s a good reason for that.

Applications and software are starting to take an oversized role in how today’s government agencies and military organizations operate. Applications help them automate mundane, repetitive jobs. They analyze data to find relationships and actionable insights. They increase operational efficiency by giving civilian and uniformed personnel new capabilities and tools to use in their tasks and as they work towards accomplishing their mission. And those applications are being developed and deployed in new ways.

The cloud-native applications that are coming out of today’s modern application development teams are built in pieces as microservices. And they’re built in containers that live on cloud resources that are provisioned and defined by Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions. They’re then deployed to modern infrastructure that incorporates cloud resources that can be provisioned quickly, scaled to meet requirements, and enable increased and remote access.

With the cloud becoming so essential to the applications that are transforming how our government agencies and military organizations operate, it makes sense that access to the cloud is an important consideration for the government.

But what does that have to do with satellites?

Cloud connectivity from virtually anywhere
Many of the places today’s military and government agencies operate are places that they would consider Disconnected, Intermittent, Limited bandwidth (DIL) environments. These are locations where terrestrial networks don’t exist – such as geographically remote and isolated locations. Or they’re places where terrestrial networks have been denied or are untrusted – like the locations where our military is often deployed.

When users have to operate in DiIL environments, it significantly hampers access to the cloud. And that means there’s no access to the next-generation applications and software solutions that are becoming essential for military and government operations.

Satellites can enable that connectivity.

“…today’s commercial satellite providers are partnering with the largest providers of public and private cloud resources to ensure direct connectivity to their clouds. That means dedicated cross-connects and cloud infrastructure are being integrated within the teleports of commercial satellite providers to ensure…unfettered, direct connectivity into cloud infrastructure and resources.”

In fact, with the evolution of high-throughput satellites operating at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), commercial satellite services can deliver fiber-like connectivity. This means that today’s satellite providers can not only ensure that cloud resources are accessible, but that they’re accessible with a user experience on-par with today’s high-bandwidth terrestrial networks.

But it’s not enough to just connect military users to the Internet and have them access their cloud-native applications and cloud resources through there. That arrangement denies the military the security and control that it demands in its IT infrastructure and networks. It also makes it nearly impossible for satellite providers to guarantee a specific SLA since there are simply too many external factors at play.

To get around this problem, today’s commercial satellite providers are partnering with the largest providers of public and private cloud resources to ensure direct connectivity to their clouds. That means dedicated cross-connects and cloud infrastructure are being integrated within the teleports of commercial satellite providers to ensure that military users have unfettered, direct connectivity into their cloud infrastructure and resources.

And – in the very near future – the same satellite equipment leveraged today by tactical users to connect in the field will be deployed to CSPs and government facilities to ensure that satellite connectivity reaches directly into their data centers. This gives military users the flexibility of either having cloud infrastructure in the teleport, or satellite hardware in their data centers.

As cloud-native applications, cloud storage for important mission data, and digital transformation initiatives gain importance across the military, it becomes essential that access to clouds is enabled from anywhere.

Commercial satellite providers are working hard to ensure military users have that access wherever they are in the world – and that their user experience is on-par or better than what they have at home. And they’re accomplishing that by working hand-in-hand with the cloud providers that the military increasingly depends on.

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However, not all communities and sectors within the federal government have been as bullish about cloud adoption. While civilian agencies and the intelligence community have all worked to move data and workloads into the cloud, the defense community has been reticent to go “all in” with cloud solutions – often citing security and other concerns.

But that’s starting to change.

We’re increasingly hearing senior leadership across all of the branches of the military talking about a need to move to the cloud. These discussions recently culminated in the Pentagon’s release of the Defense Enterprise Cloud Strategy earlier this year, which referred to the cloud as an essential part of defense IT infrastructure that would, “empower the warfighter with data and is critical to maintaining our military’s technological advantage.”

Chances are, this new desire to aggressively move the Department of Defense (DoD) into the cloud isn’t a result of some top-down mandate. Rather, it’s a result of the military sitting back and seeing the benefits that the intelligence community and civilian agencies are reaping from their cloud initiatives. And now they want those benefits for themselves.

The cloud’s positive impact on government
Within in the Intel community, the cloud has made information sharing much easier and more effective – which was no small feat considering that intel agencies often struggled with information sharing in the past. The cloud has also made it faster and cheaper for intel and civilian agencies to develop and roll out new applications and IT solutions – effectively eliminating the need to provision new physical servers and data centers for applications.

And while the cost savings and increased speed of execution has certainly been attractive, there have been other, fringe benefits that have resulted from their cloud migrations.

The cloud has enabled these agencies to experiment more and implement innovative IT programs with less concern about failure. Since little physical infrastructure investment is necessary to execute on new IT programs, there are few ramifications if a program fails or an application doesn’t gain traction within the agency.

The wide reach and geographic spread of cloud providers also creates benefits for government agencies. Emergency and disaster situations are less likely to knock out applications and services since they can be moved from one of a cloud provider’s data centers to another in a location that wasn’t impacted – something that would be impossible without significant cost for an agency operating using only brick and mortar enterprise data centers. This also allows data and applications to be housed and hosted geographically closer to where they’re needed, since most cloud providers operate a massive number of data centers in various different geographies.

The military has seen these benefits in action for the intel and civilian agencies and they understandably want access to them, as well. But they face a unique challenge that they’re going to have to overcome if they’re going to migrate necessary applications, IT services and tools into the cloud.

Connecting military personnel to cloud capabilities
The DoD has civilian personnel, senior leaders and active duty warfighters deployed across much of the globe. The organization is extremely large, and extremely distributed.

At home within the United States, on military bases and in office buildings, highspeed, broadband connectivity is almost taken for granted. It’s ubiquitous and available to deliver the most bandwidth-hungry applications and IT services to anyone who needs to access them.

But, when you start to cross outside U.S. borders, when you leave military bases, when you operate outside of allied nations with stable and reliable infrastructure, that connectivity can evaporate. And that’s a massive problem when all of the applications and IT services that military personnel rely on are hosted in the cloud – and a reliable, high-bandwidth connection is necessary to access them.

The fact is, the experience for military personnel on a military base is nothing like the experience for personnel in a forward operating base. Should there not be consistent, reliable network connectivity, should networks not be secure, or should terrestrial networks simply not exist, deployed military personnel will not have access to cloud-hosted tools and applications. And that’s probably where they’ll need them the most.

But there is a solution in the form of satellite communications.

Satellite: the military’s key to the cloud
In places where terrestrial networks are nonexistent, unreliable, insecure or lack the necessary bandwidth for military applications, satellite communications can fill the military’s connectivity requirements.

Needing little ground infrastructure to operate and available from space to practically anywhere on the globe, satellite is an adept alternative for delivering the connectivity warfighters need to access cloud applications and tools. This is especially true thanks to recent innovations and advancements in commercial satellites and satellite constellations.

Today’s innovative High-Throughput Satellites (HTS) are now available at orbits closer to the Earth, including Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), which drastically reduce latency and deliver an experience on par with high-speed terrestrial fiber networks. This is essential for delivering access to advanced cloud solutions that may require low latency environments, including cloud applications that require less than 200 milliseconds of latency.

In addition to their ability to deliver immense bandwidth, high throughputs and low latency, these MEO HTS satellites are also more secure. Comprised of moving satellites utilizing small spot beams, communications sent via MEO constellations – such as the SES O3b MEO satellite constellation – are harder to jam and intercept.

As military operations continue to become more network-enabled, and as military IT solutions and applications continue to make their way into the cloud, connectivity for the warfighter is only going to increase in importance. MEO satellites are the most available, reliable and secure solution for giving deployed military personnel and warfighters access to the cloud regardless of where they are on the planet.

For additional information about MEO satellite constellations and their potential use cases for the military, click HERE.

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As in previous years, this year’s AFCEA West brought together senior military decision makers and private industry leaders to talk about their largest technology and communications challenges and discuss the latest innovations and technology trends that can help the military accomplish its missions. Also, much like in previous years, this year’s AFCEA West was heavily attended by the U.S. Navy, with a large focus on the USINDOPACOM Area of Responsibility (AoR) – which makes sense considering the event’s physical location.

What was different – and rather surprising – about this year’s event was the overarching topics of discussion. Unlike in years past, fewer of the discussions that I had with military leaders focused on the logistical and geographic challenges that the USINDOPACOM AoR poses to the Navy – a topic that has been covered extensively on the Government Satellite Report by some of my associates. Instead, they talked extensively about two different topics – the requirements being put on the Navy due to cloud initiatives and implementations and the cybersecurity concerns facing military communications.

Let’s take a look at each of those things individually, and then talk about some of the ways that we feel satellite can help.

Navy looks to go “cloud first”
The scalability, flexibility and cost savings that often result from cloud implementations have driven many top-down “cloud first” initiatives across the federal government. Until recently, a myriad of concerns and challenges – including security concerns – had put the Department of Defense (DoD) and military entities behind many civilian federal agencies in cloud adoption.

However, following the recent release of the DoD Cloud Strategy, the military has accelerated their movement to the cloud. This was reinforced during AFCEA West by Rear Admiral Danelle Barrett, who gave a presentation on how the Navy Cyber Security Division (N2N6G) has been running pilot programs to identify how to best utilize the cloud.

With military systems and applications moving to the cloud, the need for connectivity at the edge increases dramatically. Also, since all data and applications will be hosted in the cloud and some of those files will be very large, the connections available to the warfighter need to offer high bandwidth and low latency to ensure operations on par with terrestrial networks.

Also, with mission-critical applications and information being accessed via the cloud, the need for assured communications and secure communications becomes increasingly important.

The need for mission assurance and security
The military increasingly relies on network-connected devices, platforms and vehicles in-theater, network connectivity becomes essential to the mission. As Rear Adm. Boris Becker, Commander of the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, said during a panel discussion at AFCEA West, “It’s information in warfare and information as warfare.”

Regardless of where the warfighter is operating, connectivity needs high availability and also needs to be resilient against attack.

Our enemies understand the advantage that our military gains through IT systems and applications. They also know the role that satellite plays in enabling those IT systems and applications. It behooves our adversaries to aggressively work to deny satellite capabilities to our warfighters.

As Marine Corps Commandant, Gen. Robert Neller, responded during a session at AFCEA West, “We’re at war right now in cyberspace. We’ve been at war for maybe a decade.”

Unfortunately, our increasingly sophisticated adversaries – especially those in the USINDOPACOM AoR – are becoming extremely capable and adept at denying satellite connectivity. Our adversaries – especially China and Russia – have shown that they are capable of denying satellite connectivity a number of ways. From direct kinetic attacks on satellites themselves, to simply jamming satellite signals, satellite connections are becoming more susceptible to attack at a time when they’re becoming more important than ever.

Luckily, commercial satellite solutions that are available today could help the military overcome their bandwidth, latency and mission assurance issues.

MEO delivers secure high-throughput connectivity
As we’ve established, the military is going all in on bandwidth-hogging applications and systems in the cloud, and network-enabling many of their devices and platforms. Coupled with their cloud initiatives, this is driving massive need for bandwidth at the edge.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellations are capable of delivering that high-throughput, high-bandwidth connectivity. Utilizing satellites that are half the distance to the Earth than geostationary (GEO) satellites, MEO constellations bring fiber-like connectivity to the military without the usual latency that impacts GEO satellite services. This means that even cloud applications can operate in the field via satellite with the same level of responsiveness and performance as they would over terrestrial networks.

Then there’s the issue of security and mission assurance. With missions increasingly relying on network-enabled devices, applications and platforms, mission success is increasingly tied to network availability. This is also an area where commercially-operated MEO satellite constellations can help.

It’s well established that distributing military communications through commercial satellite networks can help increase mission assurance by simply making it harder to find and negate the satellite carrying them. But, MEO satellites come with additional mission assurance capabilities baked-in.

To jam satellite signals, an adversary has to physically be located within the satellite beam. The spot beams being utilized by HTS MEO satellites are physically smaller, forcing any would-be satellite jammer to be uncomfortably close to opposing military forces. The very nature of the steerable spotbeams on MEO satellites also makes it possible to direct additional beams or replacement beams to fill in for ones that have been denied or compromised.

If AFCEA West showed us anything, it’s that the Navy – as well as the rest of the military – is doubling down on network-centric operations and increasingly moving into the cloud. While this will ultimately unlock incredible capabilities and benefits to the warfighter, it also creates connectivity and security challenges. However, by partnering with industry and utilizing the advanced satellite services available to them – including today’s MEO satellite constellations – the DoD can overcome these challenges and ensure that the warfighter always has access to what they need.

To learn more about the potential benefits of MEO at the edge, download the whitepaper, “High Throughput on the High Seas.”

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Although the content at AFCEA West is applicable to all of the military, the event is heavily attended and focused on those in the “sea service” branches of the military – including the Navy, Marine Corps, Military Sealift Command and Coast Guard. In fact, I would call AFCEA West the premier sea service conference on the west coast – and possibly in the country.

Although not specifically satellite communications (SATCOM) focused, I’m always excited to attend AFCEA West because SATCOM is so essential to the missions of these sea service military organizations. SATCOM is their life-line, connecting them back to decision makers at home. Based on discussions at this year’s event, its role is only becoming more essential as the nature of warfare changes.

Why satellite for the sea services?
The Navy and the other sea services have a unique challenge that the other branches of the military don’t face. At sea, they have limitations which prevent them from communicating in the same manner as their counterparts in other services.

It’s for this reason that satellite has become so essential for the sea services. Communicating mission essential data and information to and from at sea platforms means sending it via satellite.

This is especially true in regions where sea services are providing support for critically important, national level missions – in the littoral regions in Southwest Asia, Africa and the western Pacific. Some of these regions are literally on the opposite side of the globe, making satellite connectivity all the more essential.

More connected means more bandwidth
Today’s warfighter is more connected and more reliant on information technology (IT) services and capabilities than ever before. The same can be said for ships at sea. The same IT services and capabilities that are available to U.S. service personnel on land are expected at sea, and those IT services, and capabilities are increasingly hosted in the cloud and require high bandwidth connections to run effectively.

At the same time, the nature and format of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) data has changed and evolved. Today’s advanced sensors, Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) platforms and other sources of intelligence are generating higher resolution, high definition (HD), and sometimes streaming video. They’re also generating more data than the military can effectively and efficiently process, exploit and disseminate.

All told, the military is generating countless terabytes of data each day. With large files and an embarrassment of data riches being shared across the military, the need for high bandwidth connections to platforms becomes increasingly essential.

There is always the need to increase efficiency and operate more effectively. One of the ways that the sea services have identified to accomplish this is to share resources across multiple ships.

Take medical personnel as an example. Having a team of doctors aboard each ship means having one team for each ship at sea. Instead, if video teleconferencing (VTC) was utilized in telemedicine installations aboard each ship, a single team of specialists and other medical personnel could be shared – cutting costs and helping increase efficiency.

To accomplish IT implementations such as this, however, high bandwidth and low latency connections are required. Luckily, these connections are available and starting to see adoption across the military.

MEO HTS steals the show
The isolated nature of the sea services and their increasing reliance on IT capabilities and applications make satellite essential. But, traditional GEO satellite constellations could struggle to affordably deliver the throughputs necessary to run these advanced applications.

That’s why advanced Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) High Throughput Satellites (HTS) was the topic of so many of my discussions at AFCEA West this year.

The decision makers and senior leaders of the sea services understand they need higher throughputs and lower latencies to meet warfighting applications with demanding bandwidth requirements, including delivering large-file transfers, streaming HD videos, video teleconferencing, and many others. MEO HTS managed services are satellite solutions that can deliver it for them.

The conversations that I had at this year’s AFCEA West are indicative of a larger trend we’re seeing across the military – a reliance on higher throughputs, lower latency solutions provided in a cost-effective managed service.  Although we’ve not – yet – delivered this type of service to any of the U.S. sea services, their demand for greater capacity will eventually lead them to a MEO solution.  SES Space and Defense is ready to support and deliver!

To learn more about how MEO constellations can be used to enable a more connected, modern Navy and Marine Corps, download the whitepaper, “High Throughput on the High Seas,” by clicking HERE.

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These ships receive a large number of services and capabilities thanks to their satellite connectivity. Satellite enables the sharing of high definition, actionable ISR data, it delivers morale welfare and recreation (MWR) services and it enables those onboard access to applications and IT services usually reserved for warfighters with two feet firmly planted on the ground.

However, today’s advanced applications – including SaaS and cloud services – and the need for increasingly high-quality ISR is drastically increasing the bandwidth requirements of ships at sea. This sentiment was shared by Paul Damphousse, the Senior Director for Business Development at SES Space and Defense, who said, “The requirements for throughput by themselves are increasing. That has a lot to do with where technology is going in general, where the demands of our naval leaders are going and where our required capabilities are going.”

Maritime agencies and the U.S. Navy are also innovating new technologies and platforms that can deliver enormous tactical advantages to our military while preserving the life of American servicemen and women. These new platforms – including autonomous and unmanned platforms – have immense upside, but also come with the downside of further driving up bandwidth requirements.

As Damphousse explained, “…more and more maritime systems are becoming network-enabled. In addition to our traditional manned ships, submarines, and aircraft, the Navy is incorporating new unmanned semi-autonomous and autonomous platforms. All that data has to move throughout the battlespace or backhauled to operations centers.”

Combined, these new applications, advanced technologies and innovative platforms are forcing the Navy and other maritime-focused government organizations to find a way to deliver higher throughput and higher bandwidth connectivity to ships at sea.

According to a new whitepaper, “High Throughput on the High Seas,” from SES Space and Defense, the answer may still be right in front of them – or, more accurately, above their heads.

In the white paper, they analyze increasing maritime bandwidth demands, and look at how today’s new MEO and HTS constellations can deliver the requisite fiber-like connectivity that these organizations need all via satellite.

Regardless of where on the ocean ships may be stationed or traveling, the steerable beams of this next generation of satellites can reach them. And with their closer proximity to Earth, and focused spot beams, they can deliver extreme throughputs with much lower latency – making them perfect for powering the most bandwidth-hungry of applications.

Click HERE to download a complimentary copy of the High Throughput on the High seas whitepaper from SES Space and Defense.

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