Microsoft today unveiled Azure ExpressRoute alongside a series of partnerships with satellite operators SES, Viasat, and Intelsat to bring Azure cloud services to broadcasters, enterprises, and governments no matter how remote their operations may be.

Microsoft claims Azure ExpressRoute will allow customers to privately access Azure and Azure Government clouds via satellite connections from a variety of service providers. The service also promises to mitigate one of satellite networking's key detractors, latency, thanks to an array of "well connected" ground stations.

This approach will allow Azure customers in fields where terrestrial networking is either limited or impractical, to develop new use cases and projects that haven't previously been possible.

According to a release from SES, ExpressRoute will allow Azure customers to connect to the cloud from any boat, plane, oil rig, enterprise, or government site at "fiber-like" speeds from a flock of geostationary and medium earth orbit satellites.

“We believe that the economic and productivity benefits of the cloud should be easily available to all enterprise, maritime, and aeronautical customers as well as government organizations, regardless of location," said SES Networks CEO JP Hemingway.

Intelsat and Viasat, a purveyor of  satellite broadband internet service, also announced plans to leverage Azure ExpressRoute. Viasat is looking to launch its Direct Connect service later this year.

Alongside Microsoft's announcement, SES unveiled a managed broadcast video service that will leverage Azure ExpressRoute. The service will provide an end-to-end, service-level agreement (SLA)-based media delivery service that covers the video chain from ingest and play out to delivery.

SES says the service will enable broadcasters to better address the growing demand for "premium viewing."

By going to market with a unified solution SES claims it will be in an ideal position to rollout hybrid linear and non-linear content delivery services and solutions unmatched by terrestrial media.

“Our cloud-enabled media service will be unique to the industry and will offer scalability and flexibility along with increased broadcast quality of service thanks to the latest AI and machine learning capabilities,” said SES Video CEO Ferdinand Kayser.

SES will demonstrate two initial use cases at IBC2019 event in Amsterdam later this week.

SES also announced that its 03b mPower communications system, which can deliver 10-times greater throughput than current systems, will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2021.

The rocket will place seven high-throughput, low-latency satellites, each capable of generating thousands of electronically-steered beams that can be adjusted to serve customers around the globe, into medium earth orbit. The satellites will further enhance the capabilities enabled by Azure ExpressRoute.

The satellite constellation will join 20 older O3b satellites already in orbit.