EchoStar: Modernizing an infrastructure that keeps the world connected
About EchoStar
Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, EchoStar delivers secure communication technologies to the world through its business segments Hughes Network Systems and EchoStar Satellite Services.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact usEchoStar migrated from an on-premises monolithic infrastructure to Google Cloud to leverage AI/ML, gain efficiencies, and scale operations at previously unimaginable speeds.
Google Cloud results
- Significant reduction in costs by eliminating third-party software licensing
- 3x more business agility by deploying microservices at scale
- Time to market (TTM) reduced from 3 months to a couple of weeks
- Release deployment time reduced from 7 days to less than an hour
- Tech refresh cycles reduced from 6 months to 6 weeks
3x more business agility with cost reductions
It's been said that the internet is simply a miracle we take for granted. But its ubiquity is thanks to companies such as EchoStar, whose mission is to connect people and enterprises everywhere, even in the world's most remote places. The provider of satellite communication solutions delivers internet services and ground systems to multinational companies, government bodies, and individual consumers.
The company has been operating for 40 years, during which large volumes of business data were gathered and stored in an on-premises datacenter. In 2019, it turned to Google Cloud seeking AI/ML capabilities to use this data to better serve customers.
"Anthos revealed that it is possible to build and deploy modern, cloud-native apps in our data center consistently, at scale, even if they needed to stay on premises. It opened a world of possibilities for us."
—Mridul Malayanil, IT Sr. Director, EchoStar"We had huge volumes of data, but couldn't apply intelligence on it," explains Mridul Malayanil, IT Sr. Director at EchoStar. "Our on-premises datacenter custom applications were like hardwired spaghetti: It wasn't easy to take them apart and migrate workloads to the cloud, and we couldn't find AI/ML solutions that integrated with our environment."
When Malayanil learned about Anthos, he championed a shift in EchoStar's approach to IT. "Anthos revealed that it is possible to build and deploy modern, cloud-native apps in our data center consistently, at scale," he says, "even if they needed to stay on premises. It opened a world of possibilities for us."
Boosting efficiency and performance with AI/ML
With support from the Google Cloud Professional Services Organization, EchoStar started deploying Google Cloud solutions in a hybrid configuration. It first employed Anthos to understand and predict how customers were using its internet services, so the company could promote those services more efficiently. EchoStar needed to know whether it was selling the right amount of broadband based on specific customer needs.
To solve this problem, EchoStar pushed its customer usage data into BigQuery, using its built-in AI/ML to detect customers' service usage patterns. Customer service agents could then access this intelligence in real time during calls with customers to help them find better deals and more relevant services.
Next, EchoStar turned to field installations in its satellite business. The aim was to simplify the technical, complex process of setting up antennas on customers' roofs and then precisely pointing them toward the satellite. The company created a mobile app to efficiently guide installers through this process with data collected on site. Images such as cloud patterns in the sky can help predict how the signal will be captured. With images collected during different stages of installation, technicians have a baseline to analyze their current situation before deciding what to do next or what might have caused an issue.
Meanwhile, technicians register their progress by uploading images of the modem being installed to the app, which converts photos into text so they don't need to type anything as they proceed through the installation. This image processing happens on Google Cloud. "The amount of text the installers have to enter was reduced by a tenth," says Malayanil. "Considering that many of these installation processes happen simultaneously around the world, that's a significant efficiency gain. And we also use AIOps to determine how the network and configurations are behaving, helping to further increase performance."
Modernizing operations cost-effectively, with ease
Encouraged by these successes, EchoStar decided to move away from its legacy monolithic environment by using Anthos on Google Cloud with Google Kubernetes Engine to support more of its back-office applications. "We were evolving technologically, and our previous setup couldn't keep up," says Malayanil. "We had 20-year-old applications running into issues around license and maintenance, obsolescence, and skill sets. Upgrading them was costly and challenging. We saw the opportunity of using a more flexible microservices architecture with Google Cloud, where we can easily manage, control, and evolve our technology services with a service-mesh approach."
Malayanil also realized that migrating to Google Cloud would be more cost-effective for the company compared to the expense of renewing licenses.
"Rolling out microservices at scale with Google Cloud has increased our business agility by threefold while eliminating significant costs associated with software licensing."
—Mridul Malayanil, IT Sr. Director, EchoStarOne year later, infrastructure provisioning is now easier and takes a few minutes instead of a month. It also allows for easy blue-green implementation, with tech refresh cycles (from development to staging to production) reduced from six months to six weeks. Release deployment time has also been reduced from seven days to less than thirty minutes, speeding up time to market from three months to a couple of weeks.
"Technical teams are now better able to identify issues and tackle them on the fly," adds Malayanil. "Rolling out microservices at scale with Google Cloud has increased our business agility by threefold while eliminating significant costs associated with software licensing."
"Our applications need real-time global accessibility, the ability to deploy features at scale, and compliance with regulations such as PCI and SOX. Google Cloud provides all this, plus AI/ML analytics, cost-efficiently. We're now better placed to connect the world with smooth operations that scale at speeds unimaginable before."
—Mridul Malayanil, IT Sr. Director, EchoStarSecurity patches that used to take up to nine months due to infrastructure management challenges are also now faster and easier to implement, in line with business requirements. "Our applications need real-time global accessibility, the ability to deploy features at scale, and compliance with regulations such as PCI and SOX. Google Cloud provides all this, plus AI/ML analytics, cost-efficiently. We're now better placed to connect the world with smooth operations that scale at speeds unimaginable before," Malayanil concludes.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About EchoStar
Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, EchoStar delivers secure communication technologies to the world through its business segments Hughes Network Systems and EchoStar Satellite Services.