Google Partners With Elon Musk’s Starlink To Boost Cloud Services; How Does It Benefit Users?

Elon Musk's Starlink internet service has been undergoing trials in select countries. The Starlink involves thousands of satellites, launched into the low-Earth orbit to beam back internet on Earth. Now, Google has signed a deal with SpaceX's Starlink where Starlink terminals will be installed at Google Cloud data centers around the world.

The partnership between Google and SpaceX for the Starlink project aims to utilize cloud services for Starlink customers. This further enables Google to use the Starlink network for faster internet connections, a boost for its enterprise cloud customers.

Google, Starlink Partner For Boosting Cloud Services

Google announced the new partnership on May 13 via a press release, highlighting the secure data delivery to remote areas of the world by the end of 2021. On the other hand, SpaceX also announced the first Starlink terminal will be installed at Google's data center in New Albany, Ohio. More such terminals are expected to be installed in the coming months.

"Google is delighted to partner with SpaceX to ensure that organizations with distributed footprints have seamless, secure, and fast access to the critical applications and services they need to keep their teams up and running," said Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of infrastructure at Google Cloud in the press release.

Google, Starlink Deal: How Will This Help?

With remote working still the norm, a lot of workplaces are relying on cloud services. The new partnership between Google and Starlink aims to boost cloud services across the world. SpaceX notes the deal aims to deliver internet data access to businesses, public sector organizations, and many other groups operating around the world with Google Cloud services.

Simply put, Starlink's high-speed, low-latency broadband will now be merged with Google's Cloud infrastructure to provide a secure and fast connection to organizations and workplaces across the globe. Looking back, SpaceX made a similar deal with Microsoft Azure, another major player in the cloud business last year.

SpaceX Starlink In India

SpaceX is heavily invested to cover next-gen, cutting-edge technology to explore the Moon and beyond. At the same time, the SpaceX Starlink project has been one of the most ambitious projects to date, involves thousands of satellites to beam back the internet to the Earth, covering even the most remote corners of the world.

Presently, SpaceX has launched 1,625 Starlink satellites, with about 1,550 satellites currently in orbit. The Starlink internet service project is currently in beta in several parts of the world, including the US, Canada, and a few European countries with over 500,000 people registering.

The Starlink service is also available in India for pre-registrations, which costs around Rs. 7,300 per month. Though expensive, Starlink is expected to provide internet service to even the most remote corners of India, even where it's difficult to get mobile networks. The Starlink internet service in India is expected to rollout by the end of 2021 or at least in 2022.