The recent attack on the Berlin power grid was a stark reminder of just how quickly central infrastructure can be disrupted. What hospitals have long faced is now a reality for all critical infrastructure operators: Redundancy is not enough if every backup path shares the same regional risks. The Berlin incident is a wake-up call to reassess whether your communication and IT strategy truly delivers independence and resilience.
Critical Infrastructure: The Challenge of Shared Failure Domains
Many organizations rely on multiple backup links for their critical infrastructure, assuming this ensures continuity. However, if these links share the same physical routes, power supplies, or regional infrastructure, a single incident can take down all connections at once. This can make communication and control systems unreachable, slow down emergency teams, and severely compromise response capabilities.
Independent Paths: Satellite as the Ultimate Line of Defence
A truly independent communication path is essential for resilient critical infrastructure. Satellite backup using LEO, MEO, or GEO networks offers connectivity that is decoupled from local power and terrestrial networks. In a crisis, satellite failover ensures that control centers, response teams, and digital services remain online, while also providing logged, auditable continuity for compliance with KRITIS, ISO, and NIS2 standards.
The Berlin power outage is a real-world example of why independent backup and failover communication solutions are urgently needed. Organizations that depend solely on terrestrial redundancy remain vulnerable to regional disruptions.
Investing in independent satellite communication as a backup for critical infrastructure is no longer optional, it’s a necessity for business continuity and regulatory compliance. Sectors like healthcare, energy, and transport can benefit from architectures that enable automatic failover and true path independence, ensuring uninterrupted operations even in the most challenging scenarios.
Telespazio Germany is an independent SatCom system integrator and trusted advisor. We deliver managed non-terrestrial connectivity (LEO, MEO, GEO) to ensure service continuity when terrestrial networks fail. As proven in our solutions for hospital networks, a truly independent communication path is essential for critical infrastructure.