ESA Funding to Upgrade Platform Security

Satellite service provider SatADSL has responded to customer demands for increased levels of security on their flagship platform by starting a new development activity co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the 4S (Space Systems for Safety and Security) Strategic Line of its Telecommunication (ARTES) programme.  Corporate and governmental organizations around the world are increasingly requiring higher levels of security when transmitting sensitive information, either through permanent or on-demand connections. ESA’s support will enable SatADSL to develop, test and validate security upgrades to its flagship cloud Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offer.

The project aims to upgrading SatADSL’s Cloud Service Delivery Platform infrastructure (C-SDP) by adding security, resilience and quality features. C-SDP is a PaaS solution which removes the need for operators to invest in physical infrastructure to deliver satellite-based connectivity and services.

“This development will further exploit the potential of our one-of-a-kind platform and open it up to new mission-critical applications and markets”

Thierry Eltges, CEO at SatADSL says that by providing the level of resilience and security required in a context of growing cyber-threats and natural and human hazards, both institutional organizations and private operators will benefit from a secure network in instances such as connecting remote facilities and supporting operations.

SatADSL value proposition is to offer its customers in the governmental, military and corporate sectors a flexible service offering, that is compatible with their demanding security and resilience requirements and independent of the underlying VSAT technology.

The activity will also support the positioning of SatADSL in the high-end satellite service business by increasing the resilience and quality levels of its service delivery platform, and the consolidation of SatADSL as an aggregator of high-end satellite services. It will also give a competitive advantage to teleports by offering them a unique secured and resilient PaaS service that they can use for improving their own service offering to their customers while at the same time monetizing their unused satellite capacity with new customers.

“Our vision is to become a leader in the application of the concepts of the new digital collaborative economy to the conservative, CAPEX intensive, world of satellite services, and become a facilitator by providing a PaaS to other operators willing to offer new services and to transact business with each other,” added Thierry.

“SatADSL’s plan is to become a 'marketplace' (not owning any satellite, teleport nor Hub infrastructure) promoting bandwidth coming from several competing sources and offering a complete portfolio of satellite services to its demanding customers”

Elodie Viau, ESA Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications, said: “ESA is extremely pleased to enable continuous investment in the development of highly innovative solutions and services by European and Canadian manufacturers and operators. ESA is committed to develop initiatives in support of the European commercial satellite telecommunications industry and generate pioneering technology in this domain for the benefit of Europe’s worldwide competitiveness. This contract with SatADSL represents a new step of a long standing effort in that endeavour.”