Iridium Communications announced today that Iridium CloudConnect, the first and only satellite cloud-based solution offering truly global coverage for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, is now actively serving customers. This new service combines Iridium^® IoT capabilities with Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT and cloud services extending customers’ IoT reach to the more than 80 percent of the Earth that lacks terrestrial coverage.

By combining the unique attributes of the Iridium network with the breadth of AWS supporting infrastructure and services, Iridium customers can reduce engineering time, lower fixed operating costs, and experience faster development and deployment of new IoT products and applications.  For existing AWS customers, Iridium CloudConnect is providing the ability to easily expand their current service footprint beyond terrestrial coverage, creating the opportunity for additional service offerings and improved performance through the addition of satellite connectivity.

“There’s been great anticipation for this service since it was first announced, and now our partners and customers can easily experience the full power of IoT using AWS, combined with the only network offering truly global coverage,” said Bryan Hartin, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Iridium. “We’ve built a direct, private connection between our gateway and AWS, making it secure and redundant. This is now a premier satellite cloud-based IoT service.”

The service makes it easier to do business by translating between industry-standard cloud protocols and Iridium’s Short Burst Data^® service.  This allows virtually any IoT device connected through the Iridium network to speak natively with AWS IoT services as well as other value-added elements available in AWS Marketplace.

Iridium’s IoT services continue to experience strong subscriber growth. Commercial IoT data subscribers grew 25% from the third quarter of 2018 through the third quarter of 2019, to 767,000 customers.

“Iridium CloudConnect illustrates how the Iridium network can connect, monitor, and control assets virtually anywhere on the planet,” says Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium. “This validates why we have continued to become the de facto network of choice for customers to develop their satellite IoT services.”

Through its constellation of 66 crosslinked satellites, Iridium is the only communications company that offers truly global coverage and is ideally suited for IoT applications.