Microsoft gets serious about its space odyssey

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Editor's note: “Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is,” Douglas Adams wrote in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Microsoft and others think the same about the business opportunity that space offers. Two years ago, Microsoft launched its Azure Space initiative with a two-pronged objective—offering satellite connectivity to enterprises as well as supporting digital transformation by extending Azure capabilities anywhere in the world with space infrastructure. At the time, the Azure Space efforts seemed a little disjointed, but it was clear that Microsoft saw space as a distant—very distant—”intelligent edge”, a key phrase in every Microsoft Cloud presentation for a while now. At its core, Azure Space aims to democratize the possibilities of space and enables access to the power and capabilities of satellites via Microsoft Cloud. Last week, at the World Satellite Business Week in Paris, the company outlined its plan to expand the services portfolio. Like Azure Orbital Cloud Access. While the flavour of the season is the satellite connectivity feature on the new iPhone 14, Azure Orbital Cloud Access offers …