By Eugene de Klerk, Senior Solution Specialist – Aerospace & Defense, SAP
When people talk about space, they often think about satellites, the International Space Station, and rockets reaching the moon and, eventually, Mars. But, as this year’s Space Symposium proved, there’s so much more to the space industry.
It’s fascinating to see so many private-venture companies and startups come together to develop a vast array of innovations so rapidly. And the investment in all this activity? Looking around the show floor, my friend – a consultant from Cognitus, an SAP partner – and I are stunned by what we saw.
“For decades, launching anything new has been synonymous with years of careful optimization, well-tested precision, and compliant attention to government policies,” remarked Berthold Breitling, vice president of sales for the aerospace and defense industry at Cognitus. “Now, with growing commercialization and an expanding focus on downstream services, flexibility and agility are critical to accelerate the delivery and refine products, services, and tools as opportunities for improvement and enhancement emerge.”
And you know what? He’s right: keeping up with the explosive growth potential of the space industry will soon require a new innovation mindset.
The level of innovation happening in the space economy is not for the faint of heart.
It’s an ever-evolving journey that relies on a variety of key elements, including technology, security, integrations and connectivity, customizations, and extensibility. All these transformations involve a digital backbone that’s consistently simple yet open to integration with the latest capabilities and technologies as new initiatives require.
Connecting innovation to economic potential
The foundation of the space economy can be divided into three primary sectors, each contributing uniquely to its growth:
- Launch activities focused on transporting technologies
- Space hardware, such as satellites, propulsion systems, and subcomponents
- Software across a range of applications to manage and run hardware operations
Yet, the most fascinating opportunities lie in emerging pockets of the space economy. They include in-space R&D and manufacturing, infrastructure, exploration, and downstream services such as communication, ground terminal security, and storage. Additionally, satellite constellations are significantly contributing to remote sensing and IoT capabilities used by numerous industries such as agriculture, oil and gas, mining, and logistics. Another crucial area of interest is connectivity innovations revolutionizing Internet access.
These diverse aspects highlight the extensive and multifaceted nature of a space economy, where startups are in fierce competition for public and private investment. As this environment continues to expand, the demand for these companies to provide cutting-edge services that can scale rapidly also increases. Each of these services requires comprehensive IT operations management, so these industry players can not only thrive but also adhere to regulations and fulfill funding requirements.
Here’s where the clean core approach in a private cloud environment comes into play.
Building with the clean core difference
A clean core is what it sounds like: the core of the technology system is free from extensive rework and contains data unaffected by integrations and upgrades. This approach makes it easier to adopt the latest releases quickly, reduce modifications, and enable cloud-compliant extensions and customizations. In return, best practices can be leveraged and customizations can be focused on differentiating the business.
Understanding the importance of a clean core for the future of the space economy, Cognitus developed the Cognitus Government Contracting Compliance Solution. It’s designed to help industry players be government compliant, resolve data redundancies, simplify a complex landscape, and streamline operational tasks. And more important, the solution provides a digital foundation that allows the implementation and integration of the latest technologies to drive next-level data centricity, process excellence, and smooth connectivity.
When a company has a clean core, it can elevate innovation initiatives with advantages, including:
- Regular upgrades and powerful development tools that make updates and upgrades easier and integrate cloud services faster
- Greater system adaptability to meet changing business requirements and adopt new capabilities
- Faster and easier adoption of the latest innovations, with negligible impact on the underlying data and processes
- Optimized processes across the entire business, increasing efficiency and productivity
- Integration of systems and extensions without affecting the core data
- Development of new applications on demand, without costly additions to workflows or testing
Organizations using the clean core approach find upgrading the system becomes simpler, takes less time, and doesn’t disrupt legacy systems and operations. This allows more resources to focus on deploying innovation rather than chasing bespoke extensions and integrations. More important, they can develop and consume innovation faster independently or with a partner.
Creating space for competitive ingenuity
The space economy’s potential is vast and rapidly expanding, driven by significant investments and a proliferation of services and technologies. And let’s face it – it’s an exhilarating time to be in this industry.
To safeguard their futures, many companies in this sector are applying the clean core approach to their digital strategy. Doing so allows them to build and maintain a comprehensive yet flexible digital backbone. Then, over time, they can upgrade, enhance, and evolve as they innovate, remain compliant, and thrive in an industry poised for exponential growth.
To learn more about the clean core approach, visit us online.
