Taking Data Access and Governance into Orbit

Eutelsat Group is the world's first satellite operator with an integrated GEO-LEO infrastructure. With a fleet of 35 geostationary (GEO) satellites and a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation of more than 600 satellites, Eutelsat Group addresses the four key verticals of Mobile Connectivity, Fixed Connectivity, Government Services and Video. Headquartered in Paris with more than 1,700 employees in over 50 countries, Eutelsat Group is committed to delivering safe, resilient and environmentally sustainable connectivity to help bridge the digital divide.

Scaling to meet data demands globally

Eutelsat Group’s mission is to anticipate future customer needs with cutting-edge satellite technology, opening new forms of communication that fuel connectivity across the globe. To deliver on this mission, Eutelsat Group needed full control and visibility into its operational and customer data. Following the merger between Eutelsat Group and OneWeb in 2023, Eutelsat Group made the strategic decision to bring all of its data assets together as an open data lakehouse, underpinned by best-in-class cloud infrastructure.

As Eutelsat Group was generating hundreds of gigabytes of data per day, it required a platform that would scale with its needs, but at the same time ensure compliance across all of the countries in which it operates. Using Cloudera on AWS, Eutelsat Group has the flexibility and scale to unlock the most value from its data, making the process of utilizing data in hybrid public cloud environments efficient, secure, and manageable.

“Due to the scalability and reliability of the Cloudera platform, we have improved the time to market for new data products without needing to scale up our team,” said Ciro Milite, Director of Data & Digital Services Management, Eutelsat Group.

Enhancing data access with Apache Iceberg

Eutelsat has been using Cloudera as its on-premises data management platform since 2019. So, when it came to moving to the cloud and creating a distributed and well-governed data ecosystem, Cloudera on AWS was the ideal solution. The cloud migration took six months, with Cloudera, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Eutelsat Group’s technology partner, Agile Lab, providing expert support from solution design through to final testing and go-live.

Cloudera now provides the centralized open data lakehouse for Eutelsat Group, enabling the company to collect operational and customer data to enhance service delivery and build new data products. A deciding factor was that Cloudera's open data lakehouse is based on Apache Iceberg; the open table format has allowed Eutelsat Group to easily share and manage data, while ensuring data reliability and governance. Additionally, presenting data with Iceberg means it is highly performant at scale and can be accessed in a safe and compliant manner by any user in the organization using their data analytics tool of choice. This approach has eliminated silos and multiple copies of data while unifying structured and unstructured data for generating richer insights.

“Cloudera’s open data lakehouse on AWS with Apache Iceberg delivers an open table format with advanced functionality, making it easier to use and maintain our data,” commented Matteo Carucci, Head of Data & Analytics, Eutelsat Group.

Flexibility was also a key requirement for Eutelsat Group. Having an open format ensures that the company retains full control of its data, irrespective of its future technology roadmap. In addition, Cloudera provides Eutelsat Group with the flexibility to adopt a hybrid cloud approach allowing it to adapt to country-specific regulations as they relate to where data must reside. Eutelsat Group, thanks to Cloudera's hybrid support, can leverage the most appropriate infrastructure, be that cloud or data center.

“Cloudera provides us with the flexibility to adopt a hybrid cloud approach, depending on different regulatory or technical requirements. This gives the freedom to always stay a step ahead and mitigate the risk of vendor lock-in,” said Ciro Milite.

Real-time insights and a platform for AI innovation

Today, Cloudera supports a wide range of operational and customer experience use cases. Eutelsat Group can now monitor performance data from its network of satellites in real-time and collect more than 50 million data points from end users every day. Such insight is invaluable as it empowers Eutelsat Group to always maintain the highest levels of service delivery. Since bandwidth is a finite resource, using it efficiently is a critical task for satellite telecommunications companies. By using Cloudera on AWS to collect and analyze data from its satellite internet users, Eutelsat Group’s Network Operation Center can better anticipate and proactively address network congestion, thereby preventing disruptions. 

Cloudera is also being used to support several machine learning use cases that are in production, and Eutelsat Group is also exploring ways to apply generative AI to its data. For example, it is evaluating how an AI chatbot can help reduce incident resolution times and enhance level-one service desk support. With a scalable, resilient, and future-proof data foundation in place, Eutelsat Group now has a platform to launch data-driven innovation across the organization.

“Working with Cloudera enables us to stay ahead of the data curve. It gives us everything we need on one platform,” concluded Matteo Carucci.