Thanks to the alliance with Cysec we offer added value
Vincenzo Luciano Lucrezia – COO and Co-Founder of Tiesse S.p.A.
We aim for the development of the space internet that will connect billions of people
Patrick Trinkler – CYSEC CEO & Co-fondatore
Published on June 20th 2024 on Corriere delle Telecomunicazioni (link) – Author: Antonello Salerno
The satellite telecommunications sector could be a great opportunity for Italy and Europe to make up for lost ground in a sector in which until recently we were leaders on a global scale, with companies producing cutting-edge network equipment, and in which we have progressively lost ground to the Asian and US giants’. These words come from Vincenzo Luciano Lucrezia, co-founder and Coo of Tiesse, an entirely Italian company that has been designing, manufacturing and marketing access routers for broadband and cellular networks for 25 years, with a particular focus on mission-critical scenarios.
Confirming the excellence of Italian players in this sector is Patrick Trinkler, co-founder and CEO of Cysec, a European IT security company specialising in the space sector: ‘From our point of view,’ Trinkler explains, ‘we see an important Italian leadership at European level on security and satellite communications issues. Suffice it to mention companies such as D-Orbit, Leonardo, or Tiesse itself. There are poles in the country that form very interesting ecosystems, with few competitors able to keep up”.
Index of Topics
- The alliance with Cysec
- The added value of partnerships
- The importance of IT security for the new space
- Current collaborations
- The mission of Tiesse
- Partnership developments
The alliance with Cysec
In order to add value to the satellite telecommunications offering, Tiesse and Cysec recently signed an industrial partnership. “For a company like Tiesse, the direct relationship with universities is fundamental, on the one hand to attract talent, which is increasingly rare in the field of technological innovation, and on the other to get the right ideas to activate new initiatives that focus on innovation. Thanks to the partnership with Cysec, we offer added value on security, expanding the usage scenarios of our solutions’.
“In the first instance we used models from our Lte industrial gateway series and a Tgr edge router,’ he continues, ‘The collaboration is very fruitful, we are on the same wavelength for many factors. Both Tiesse and Cysec are companies close to the customers, with whom you can have a direct relationship: moreover, both are characterised by full control of the solution, totally governed by strict internal processes, and by complete control of the supply chain, guaranteeing a high standard of security that you cannot have when you choose objects produced on the other side of the planet’.
The added value of partnerships
In a sector populated by multinational players, finding the right alliances means, for Tiesse, having the guarantee of being able to offer competitive products and solutions: “Our main customers are large groups and organisations, including public ones,” explains Lucrezia. “It is a sector where competition is fierce, and this is why we are constantly looking for value-added applications: we want to go beyond simply providing connectivity to be included in our products. Our distinctive elements are the complete control of our products and flexibility in design, which allows us to meet the customer’s needs and, above all, a final product with guaranteed quality and high safety standards,’ Lucrezia explains.
‘We are witnessing an epochal change in the world of Tlc infrastructures,’ Trinkler emphasises, ‘an evolution that creates business opportunities for an entire sector and for all players that can generate services and products. Today, a satellite in low orbit costs about half a million euros, while a kilometre of fibre can cost a million euros: constellations of satellites in low orbits make it possible to offer competitive and low-cost telecommunications services. But for the market to develop fully, these infrastructures must be secure. This means, as in the case of Tiesse and Cysec, being able to count on a fully European, local service, where processes are well controlled and quality is guaranteed’.
The importance of IT security for new space
Underlining the opportunities that are opening up for the world of telecommunications with the advent of new space is Trinkler: ‘We are facing a real disruption,’ he explains, ‘because the sat economy market and new space are actually based on an information technology infrastructure. We have the opportunity to connect all the billions of people who today do not have access to the internet via satellite, and also use the satellite infrastructure to move the data needed for artificial intelligence solutions’.
The dimension of ubiquity that new businesses require in order to function, in fact, imposes the need not only to protect the various types of communications, but also the very places where data physically reside or transit, and therefore the routers. In this area, Tiesse has a wealth of experience with the supply of network equipment.
Current collaborations
“We have recently concluded the I-Fasenet research project, part of the Ital-GovSatCom programme, which focuses on so-called ‘Non Terrestrial Networks’,” Lucrezia emphasises. “We have developed a device to be installed on mobile vehicles for emergency management. Several national companies collaborated in the initiative, each for the part of its competence. This kind of solution is particularly important for a territory like Italy, which due to its conformation will always have remote or inaccessible areas where the only possible connection will be satellite. Suffice it to think, for example, of certain mountain areas or minor islands, which are the most at risk of digital divide, and for which it becomes indispensable to be able to count on a continuous ‘seamless’ connection, such as that offered by our routers, which are able to adapt to the technologies available at the time”.
The mission of Tiesse
Since its foundation in 1998, Tiesse has made a name for itself in the Italian telecommunications market, as well as in the international market, for its networking solutions (routers, IoT devices, custom network products and for vertical markets) that are easily identifiable both by the names of the product series (Imola, Lipari, Levanto, to give just a few examples), and by their security, reliability, scalability and high performance characteristics. Founded in Piedmont and with offices in Ivrea, Turin and outside the region (Rome, and Avezzano, in the province of L’Aquila), it has recently emerged for its involvement in the field of satellite telecommunications.
Partnership developments
As for the possible future developments of the partnership between Tiesse and Cysec, “We started with a general purpose product,” explains Lucrezia, “with the aim of reducing costs and environmental impact and having a solution that is as high-performance as possible, integrating as many functionalities as possible that could be useful for potential customers. We plan to use it mainly on satellite links, to make connections more efficient and secure thanks to encryption on a fully European infrastructure. But, in line with our slogan, which is ‘Innovation made in Italy’, we are already thinking of the future,’ he concludes, ‘and of the opportunities that will open up with quantum resilience, where innovative, high-performance and competitive products are needed.