Iridium CloudConnect. Photo: Iridium

Iridium Communications has deployed the service Iridium CloudConnect, calling it “the first and only satellite cloud-based solution offering  global coverage for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.” The service combines Iridium IoT capabilities with Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT and cloud services, with capabilities to extend customers’ IoT reach to the more than 80 percent of the Earth that lacks terrestrial coverage.

Iridium said that combining the attributes of its network with AWS’ supporting infrastructure and services will give its customers reduced engineering time, lower fixed operating costs, and faster development and deployment of new IoT products and applications. 

Iridium announced CloudConnect in September 2018, and at the time projected deployment in 2019.  Bryan Hartin, Iridium executive vice president of sales and marketing said that the service has been greatly anticipated since it was announced. 

“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,” Hartin said.

Iridium reports that its IoT services are experiencing subscriber growth. The company said commercial IoT data subscribers grew 25% from the third quarter of 2018 through the third quarter of 2019, to 767,000 customers.