LEO connectivity brings new possibilities with 100% uptime

Speaking to Seatrade Maritime News ahead of the webinar “Debunking LEO and Cloud for Maritime Industry” Jon Grunnan, VP Group IT (CIO), Hurtigruten said the use of an LEO solution across the Hurtigruten Expeditions fleet had brought tangible results.

“Since deploying the new LEO connectivity path across our Expedition fleet, we’re seeing strong performance and high availability levels. Adding LEO as part of our hybrid connectivity platform has helped reduced downtime, even for our vessels operating in the Antartica.

“100% uptime across our fleet will enable us to really rethink the art of possible for our vessel operations and passenger and crew connectivity. The potential is unlimited,” said Grunnan.

Speaking alongside Grunnan at the webinar will be Paul DeLaria, Partner Solution Architect, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to give an overview of the operational potential unlocked when vessels can be treated as an always-on office with access to the cloud.

“Once low latency, high bandwidth, real-time connectivity is available to vessels, companies can start harnessing and leveraging their data. They can increase their pace of innovation and drive business outcomes through data and advanced analytics.

“With the explosion of data and demand for faster decision-making on real-time data, new challenges are created, including how to store, process and access these data effectively. Utilizing LEO connectivity, real-time cloud computing is possible, providing an affordable, accessible, powerful technology that can systematically improve key business metrics like OPEX, assets utilization and safety.”

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Bridging the gap between the cloud services and the ship operators, Sandro Delucia, Product Director, Speedcast and William Mudge, Vice President of Engineering Operations, Speedcast will give their view on the capabilities of current LEO connectivity solutions and how to pick the right path forward.

“Vessel owners/operators demand connectivity that works, 100% of the time. The latest LEO technologies are getting close to that and are putting massively more bandwidth into the sky.

“Because of the higher bandwidth and lower latency, vessel operators can run ERP systems and real-time applications at the edge and accelerate decision making. They can also satisfy passenger and crew demand for broadband internet,” said Mudge.

“The challenge they face now is that there are several LEO solutions coming to market, and it can be difficult to assess which solutions will meet their needs. It’s about taking advantage of new technology developments with the least downside risk to operations, especially when some of them are still going through regulatory approvals, financing and supply chain issues. Vessel owners need a multi-path, multi-orbit approach to ensure the highest levels of availability and flexibility,” added Delcuia.

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Debunking LEO and Cloud for the Maritime Industry is a free-to-attend, one hour webinar taking place on Tuesday, December 06, 2022 at 1400 hrs GMT. Click here to register.