Is Big Data a Big Deal for Teleports?
by Robert Bell
New York City, January 3, 2020--Big Data is information on steroids. It is generated at high volume, high velocity and with enormous structural variety from billions of devices flooding the world’s data centers with bits. But the same term encompasses an even more radical development: the data analytics that can turn this explosion of digital content into business insights and actionable intelligence.
The accompanying revolution in machine learning is what gives Big Data its impact. The systems learn from the data, identify patterns and make choices, producing real-time analysis with huge impact on performance, productivity and profitability.
Big Data has one more important aspect. The cloud services business – which did not exist fifteen years ago but reached $325 billion in 2018 global revenues – is a massive enabler of Big Data applications. Near-unlimited compute capacity and specialized applications are available worldwide on a pay-as-you-go model that has stimulated innovation on a major scale. Indeed, Big Data has become shorthand for data that is big (in volume, velocity and variety), able to be analyzed for valuable insights and available almost everywhere.
The Teleport Opportunity
In a recent report, Teleports and Big Data, the World Teleport Association breaks down this global information revolution into opportunities accessible by the teleport operators who have been driving innovation in the industry for decades.
NSR starts the ball rolling by pegging the Big Data opportunity for satellite at $18.1 billion in cumulative revenues from 2017 to 2027. The biggest sectors will be earth observation and the Internet of Things, each contributing about half the total revenues. But there is a third sector that is already benefiting from Big Data, and that is the teleport operator.
For service providers, the Big Data revolution presents a mix of big opportunities and challenges in three critical areas. They include the chance to win and retain connectivity business specific to Big Data, whether for media and entertainment customers or those operating in the data-centric niches of maritime, energy, transportation, enterprise and government. The second opportunity is to become more than a connectivity provider by delivering services the Big Data customer needs, from local processing of applications to data analytics and hybrid cloud services. The third is to transform their own operations using Big Data, enabling them to do more with fewer, higher-skilled people, improve service continuity, optimize bandwidth and increase profitability.
Where is the Growth?
The good news, for teleport operators who can deliver Big Data capabilities, is that the opportunities are in markets they already serve.
Land, maritime and aeronautical transport markets will be responsible for 30% of space Big Data revenues, according to NSR. Executives interviewed for the report cite double-digit growth.
Government and military Big Data customers will contribute 26% of total revenues through 2027, according to NSR – but interviewees were appropriately silent on the applications and services they provide. The energy business, however, will be a much bigger market, from exploration and production to utilities and green energy. As one interviewee put it, “Big Data is worth billions to oil companies, to help them identify where to invest and how best to develop assets.”
The role of Big Data analytics in online, social and mobile advertising is just as big. Monetization of business intelligence about content viewership, location, preferences and buying intent represents billions of dollars. As they originate and distribute media online as well as by satellite, teleport operators are well positioned to profit in this field.
Narrow and Broadband
Big Data can start out small. Narrowband connectivity is critical to pulling data from sensors in small bursts. Teleport operators are creating high-value solutions by integrating narrowband and broadband satellite technologies. It requires significant expertise to combine technologies into seamless networks, but the scale of the opportunity makes it worthwhile. Technologies include a mix of space and terrestrial links backed up by cellular, IP-VPN and VSAT/BGAN satellite. Other operators are using VSATs to aggregate narrowband traffic from devices and backhaul it to the cloud for analysis, using low-power radio for the last mile to IoT devices.
Seeking Competitive Advantage
Teleport operators are also consumers of Big Data. They use it optimize network operations, improve capacity planning and provisioning, and manage field service and supply chains. Based on their growing expertise, they are also offering high-value applications to customers, ranging from predictive maintenance and vehicle tracking to continuous improvement in the online experience of cruise line passengers. Their goal is to become the essential provider in the value chain for their customers.
Contributors to the report were unanimous about one thing: Big Data is driving them to redefine the value they provide. That means developing new capabilities but also finding the right place in the value chain. Serving IoT customers is a team sport involving multiple connectivity paths, edge devices, transmission systems, hub services, network management and analytics. Each operator we interviewed is working to best leverage their capabilities and find a defensible market niche.
One networking technology supplier’s executive foresees a radical change ahead in how satellite networks support future communications architectures. He expects satellite to integrate more closely with terrestrial services in a dynamic, software-driven future. An automation supplier executive agrees: “Satellite is going like terrestrial, where bandwidth and services are dynamic.” It’s a future that the industry is working hard to seize.
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Robert Bell is the executive director of the World Teleport Association (www.worldteleport.org), which conducts research into the teleport and satellite industry and offers a Teleport Certification program to service providers. The Teleports and Big Data report is available for free to members and for sale to non-members at https://www.worldteleport.org/store/ViewProduct.aspx?id=15096909.
