Cloud computing is old technology. An LA-based start-up wants to move your data beyond the cloud. Cloud Constellation wants to store your data in space. The firm is planning on building a satellite-based data center that will have room for petabytes of data and may start orbiting Earth as early as 2019 according to Computerworld.
CEO Scott Sobhani told the author Cloud Constellation is looking upward to give companies and governments direct access to their data from anywhere in the world. Its data centers on satellites would let users bypass the Internet and the thousands of miles of fiber their bits now have to traverse in order to circle the globe. And instead of just transporting data, the company’s satellites would store it, too.
The article describes the pitch like this – Data centers and cables on Earth are susceptible to hacking and to national regulations covering things like government access to information. They can also slow data down as it goes through switches and from one carrier to another, and all those carriers need to get paid.
Cloud Constellation’s system, called SpaceBelt, would be a one-stop-shop for data storage and transport. Need to set up a new international office? No need to call a local carrier or data-center operator. Cloud Constellation plans to sell capacity on SpaceBelt to cloud providers that could offer such services.
Security is another selling point. Data centers on satellites would be safe from disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, and tsunami. Internet-based hacks wouldn’t directly threaten the SpaceBelt network. The system will use hardware-assisted encryption, and just to communicate with the satellites an intruder would need an advanced Earth station that couldn’t just be bought off the shelf, Mr. Sobhani told ComputerWorld.
Cloud Constellation’s secret sauce is a technology that it developed to cut the cost of all this from US$4 billion to about US$460 million, Sobhani said. The network would begin with eight or nine satellites and grow from there. Together, the linked satellites would form a computing cloud in space that could do things like transcode video as well as storing bits. Each new generation of spacecraft would have more modern data center gear inside.
The company plans to store petabytes of data across this network of satellites. Computerworld points out that the SpaceBelt hardware would have to be certified for use in space. Hardware in space is more prone to bombardment by cosmic particles that can cause errors. Most computer gear in space today is more expensive and less advanced than what’s on the ground, satellite analyst Tim Farrar of TMF Associates said.
Taneja Group storage analyst Mike Matchett told the author that the idea of petabytes in space is not as far-fetched as it may sound. A petabyte can already fit on a few shelves in a data center rack, and each generation of storage gear packs more data into the same amount of space. This is likely to get better even before the first satellites are built.
But if you do put your data in space, don’t expect it to float free from the laws of Earth. Under the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the country where a satellite is registered still has jurisdiction over it after it’s in space, said Michael Listner, an attorney and founder of Space Law & Policy Solutions. If Cloud Constellations’ satellites are registered in the US, for example, the company will have to comply with subpoenas from the U.S. and other countries, he said.
And while the laws of physics are constant, those on Earth are unpredictable. For example, the US hasn’t passed any laws that directly address data storage in orbit, but in 1990 it extended patents to space, said Frans von der Dunk, a professor of space law at the University of Nebraska. “Looking towards the future, that gap could always be filled.”
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On the Bach Seat, we have covered different theories about data centers several times. These theories included manure, sewer gas, and used cars to power DC’s as well as proposed data centers underwater and at KMart. This one however seems the most unique, considering the start-up costs to build and launch satellites.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.