Aquarius Bulk Carrier (Athens) selects Navarino connectivity / IT / cybersecurity systems

Aquarius Bulk Carrier Shipping, an Athens-based shipping company operating a fleet of ten modern bulk carriers, has selected Navarino to upgrade and future-proof its digital infrastructure across all vessels. With a strong commitment to operational efficiency, safety, and crew welfare, Aquarius has partnered with Navarino to deploy a comprehensive suite of high-performance connectivity, IT, and cyber security solutions.

A Hybrid Connectivity Ecosystem

To ensure uninterrupted global communications, Aquarius has adopted a hybrid connectivity setup combining Starlink and Ku-band VSAT services, the latter using Intellian v100NX antennas. This provides each vessel with robust, high-bandwidth connectivity. This dual-layer approach ensures that vessels maintain reliable connectivity regardless of trade route, weather conditions, or demand, delivering a stable digital backbone that supports the company’s evolving operational needs. On top of these benefits, the upgrade to crew welfare from having high-speed, low-latency bandwidth via Starlink has been very significant. As a company that treats the welfare of its seafarers as a top priority, this was a key consideration in choosing to rollout Starlink, in order to help crews stay connected with loved ones and to provide them with an online environment similar to the one they have on land.

Infinity Plus-A scalable, made-for-maritime IT Platform

For full control over its fleet’s bandwidth and to standardize its onboard IT environment, Aquarius is using Navarino’s Infinity Plus platform, based on Dell 450 servers. Infinity Plus allows IT Managers to:

• Segment and manage corporate and crew networks

• Provide secure VPN access

• Optimize application performance and data usage

• Control and manage bandwidth consumption

• As a result Aquarius now enjoys a unified, efficient, and consistent IT ecosystem across every vessel in the fleet.

Strengthening Cyber Resilience with Angel

To help protect from the evolving cyber threat landscape in the maritime sector, Aquarius has implemented Navarino’s Angel platform to safeguard its vessels. Angel, which is certified by Bureau Veritas, DNV and Class NK, provides ship operators with real-time threat detection and alerts, compliance support for IMO 2021, TMSA and industry standards and a 24/7 Security Operations Centre that monitors and responds to threats.

Thanks to Angel, Aquarius receives daily cyber security alerts, which have assisted greatly in identifying potential vulnerabilities that need to be addressed and which have also detected several attempted IDP / IPS attacks, along with their sources, severity levels and attack destinations.

In addition, the company has adopted Navarino’s Spectrum service for advanced remote monitoring and patch management in order to reduce the need for onboard interventions and improve uptime fleet-wide.

Dimitris Karampinis, DPA, CSO and HSQE Manager at Aquarius highlighted the value of the partnership, ‘At Aquarius, safety, reliability, and operational excellence are at the core of everything we do. Navarino’s solutions have significantly strengthened our connectivity, cyber security, and IT management capabilities across the fleet. Their support teams are always responsive and knowledgeable, and we consider Navarino a trusted technology partner in our continuous efforts to enhance our vessels’ performance and safety.’

Ioannis Brougiannakis, Navarino Account Manager for Aquarius Bulk Carrier Shipping, added ‘Working with Aquarius has been a pleasure. Their team is forward-thinking and committed to leveraging technology to improve their fleet’s performance. We are proud to support them and look forward to a long, successful collaboration together.’