SES has announced that Microsoft will become the first cloud provider customer for SES’s next-generation Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) system – O3b mPOWER.

Microsoft plans to leverage the MEO connectivity services for its Azure Orbital solutions that integrate satellite connectivity with Azure services. Microsoft will use SES’s current MEO constellation to provide connectivity now before migrating to O3b mPOWER next year. Microsoft’s plans to deploy O3b mPOWER at Azure Network locations can also be seen as another step in the close collaboration between the two companies.

“Utilizing SES’s Medium-Earth Orbit system enhances the power of Azure Orbital and enables us to deliver greater resiliency and comprehensive satellite connectivity solutions for our customers. Our collaboration with SES is key to delivering on our vision of multi-orbit, cloud-enabled capability to meet critical industry needs,” William Chappell, vice president of Azure Global, Microsoft, said in a statement.

Microsoft and SES are close collaborators. SES is co-locating four of its O3b mPOWER gateways at or near Azure data centers, and SES is the founding MEO satellite connectivity partner for Microsoft Azure Orbital.