With this, Gartner will soon be ranking IBM as leading in the Space Cloud. Then IBM will be citing the Gartner report to then proclaim their dominance in this "niche" segment.
https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2022/05/25/red-hat-ibm-tech-hitches-a-ride-with-spacex.html
By: Lauren Ohnesorge – Senior Staff Writer, Triangle Business Journal
May 25, 2022
When a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket launched Wednesday afternoon, it was carrying an experiment led by IBM using Red Hat technologies.
The effort is IBM’s Endurance CubeSat Mission, powered by open-source, hybrid-cloud and AI technologies from both IBM and Red Hat. The goals are to provide a fast and easy way to process data in space, as well as open up outer space to anyone – including students.
The stakes are high, said Naeem Altaf, CTO of Space Tech at IBM (NYSE: IBM). Altaf said work on the software-equipped "cube satellites" being launched started almost two years ago.
The goal is to “democratize access to space,” he said.
“As you know, it’s only for a few privileged countries in the world,” he said. “We thought we could make it accessible to anyone, basically, with a hybrid-cloud platform.”
Red Hat was integral to the project, he said. The team had to create a smaller version of its Kubernetes platform. Instead of OpenShift, think “Micro-Shift.”
“We needed something that would take less resources,” Altaf said.
Developers from across the globe – including in Raleigh – contributed to the project.
Altaf sees endless commercial opportunities – but IBM is starting with schools.
Someday, he envisions typical satellites will be software-defined, acting as Software-as-a-Service. Access to specialized sensors will be open to anyone – no specialized hardware required. It makes microgravity experiments possible without advanced aerospace knowledge.
Wednesday’s mission involves sending cube satellites to space where a select group of students globally will be able to interact with them directly. Students will be able to use code to access data from various sensors, take pictures, perform calculations and get the insights back down to earth – something Altaf hopes will be the status quo for future technologists.