Friday Bytes: Commstar, Avelacom, STACK, Viasat, MetTel

Two from orbit, some certifications, and some low latency:

One of the more interesting announcements this week that I don’t quite know what to make up comes from way up in orbit. Commstar Space Communications has announced plans to deploy a data relay satellite between the Earth and the Moon by 2023. More specifically, the satellite will sit at some 42K miles from the Moon, and is intended as a step toward supporting significant volumes of both laser and radio communications between destinations on and in orbit around both bodies. The idea is to build infrastructure to enable networking beyond low earth orbit so that we don’t have to bring it with us later, while simultaneously leveraging modern software-defined automation capabilities.

According to Avelacom, London’s star is on the rise in the cryptocurrency trading market right now. The low-latency network specialist says that since the start of 2020, 30% of its clients in the crypto trading segment are accessing AWS London and that number is expected to rise to 50% in the near term. The ongoing rise of crypto currency trading is shifting the low latency markets to new destinations beyond those that serve the financial markets, but of course London is on both lists.

STACK Infrastructure has updated the list of certifications its facilities support. They have now achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2013 compliance and renewed its SSAE18 Type 2 SOC 1, SSAE18 Type 2 SOC 2, Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, and HIPAA certifications as well. Third part auditors did all the necessary assessing of course. The certifications will enable STACK to take its portfolio to as wide a market as possible.

And back in space, Viasat has found a new terrestrial partner. MetTel has signed on to bring Viasat’s satellite internet services to market as a part of MetTel’s portfolio. The additional capabilities will let MetTel reach deeper into the markets it serves in both the continental US, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Viasat is able to reach remote locations that the other carriers MetTel works with are unable to reach cost effectively.

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Categories: Datacenter · Low Latency · satellite