Google Partners With Elon Musk’s Starlink To Supply Computing And Networking Resources
Google Partners With Elon Musk’s Starlink To Supply Computing And Networking Resources. Google announced on Thursday its cloud unit has won a deal to supply computing and networking resources to SpaceX, Elon Musk’s privately held space-development company, to help deliver internet service through its Starlink satellites.
“This is one of a kind. I don’t believe something like this has been done before,” Bikash Koley, Google’s head of global networking told CNBC. “The real potential of this technology became very obvious. The power of combining cloud with universal secure connectivity, it’s a very powerful combination.”
SpaceX will install ground stations at Google data centres that connect to SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, with an eye toward providing fast internet service to enterprises in the second half of this year. The deal represents a victory for Google as it works to take share from Amazon and Microsoft in the fast-growing cloud computing market.
“They chose us because of the quality of our network and the distribution and reach of our network,” Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google’s cloud group told CNBC. In SpaceX’s case, there is no need for cell towers. Instead, customers’ devices will communicate to satellites, and then the satellites will link up to Google data centres. Inside those data centres, customers can run applications quickly using Google’s cloud services, or they can send the information on to other companies’ services that are geographically nearby, enabling low latency so there’s minimal lag. Data then comes right back through the Google data centres to satellites, and then down to end users.
According to CNBC, SpaceX will deploy the ground stations at Google data centres in the U.S., but the company wants to expand internationally. SpaceX is one of the world’s most valuable privately held start-ups, having raised money at a $74 billion valuation in February, CNBC reported. Google invested $900 million in SpaceX in 2015. SpaceX has launched over 1,500 Starlink satellites into orbit, and last week the company said more than 500,000 people have ordered or made a deposit for the internet service.
