Microsoft announced Azure Space, a new business unit that will adapt its Azure cloud computing platform to address challenges like the increased need for bandwidth and cloud services in remote locations. Its launch includes a partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to provide connectivity to Azure via satellite broadband. (The Logic)

Talking point: “Microsoft is taking the next giant leap in cloud computing – to space,” wrote Tom Keane, corporate vice-president of Azure Global, in a blog post. Its SpaceX partnership “will provide high-speed, low-latency satellite broadband” for its new modular data centre, which was designed “to support high-intensity, secure cloud computing in challenging environments,” like those with unreliable power. Meanwhile, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has approved SpaceX’s application to provide high-speed internet service to rural Canadians through satellites that orbit 550 kilometres above Earth. Traditional telecom satellites orbit much higher––more than 20,000 kilometers above Earth.