Iridium's constellation of telecom satellites covers the globe.
Cloud computing isn't just for your music player anymore. The satellite-telecom company Iridium is working with partners on satellite-based systems that can uplink data on a regular basis to its orbiting "cloud" of 66 satellites, just in case a wayward airplane or hiker needs assistance in the remote regions of the world where cell phones and radios don't work.
If such a system had been in place when an Air France jet crashed into the Atlantic in 2009, investigators might have been able to study near-real-time information about the plane's troubles, rather than waiting or the recovery of the jet's black boxes from the ocean bottom.
"They wouldn't have had to spend two years and $40 million," said Matt Desch, Iridium's chief executive officer.
But such systems can do more than untangle air disasters: As more and more companies rely on cloud computing, satellite communications can facilitate links to the Internet in wide regions of the world where there are no good alternatives.
"The cloud is great," Desch told me, "but the cloud says that we have to depend on the Internet more and more. If the Internet is still on only 78 percent of the planet, where's the cloud when you're someplace else? Your device becomes useless. I look at us as the ultimate cloud, the space cloud, if you will."
Read More: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/20/6901966-ultimate-cloud-comes-to-the-rescue
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