Microsoft – How Our Internet Of Things Will Change Your Business

Microsoft’s recent Convergence event saw the company release several new products and platforms, including a new highly customisable cloud-based service for its Azure platform.

Hailed by CEO Satya Nadella as delivering open, scalable platforms and services that any company, from start-ups to global enterprises, can use, the new Azure IoT suite is Microsoft’s most significant pitch to the connected market yet, but what real benefits can it provide over its competitors?

Evolving

At a media briefing to discuss Microsoft’s Convergence activity, Kirill Tatarinov, executive vice president of the company’s business solutions group, described the trends of Internet of Things and machine learning as, “the next evolution of technology that enables organisations to do amazing things”

“We believe that IoT is truly an emerging discipline and truly the area where many organisations like to make an investment to get better at accepting those signals, managing things that exist, managing machinery, managing devices, instrumenting them,” he said.

“We think there is a huge demand. We actually think and see that there isn’t enough supply. We see lots of rhetoric in the industry but we see very little delivery, to be honest with you.”

This lack of clearly defined competition and delivery means Microsoft are in a great place to move into the Internet of Things field with Azure IoT Suite, Tatarinov claimed.

“I think that represents an opportunity for us to come in with truly phenomenal, real innovation in the form of Azure IoT that combines a set of very well-proven services, like Azure Machine Learning, like Azure Data Analytics, like Azure Stream Analytics, and brings a superb solution to our customers,” he said.

“It didn’t happen out of nowhere, it happened out of a need….need and technology have come together, and so the virtual cycle continues.”

Get connected

Asked about the balance of global innovation at Convergence 2015, Tatarinov (pictured right) said that Microsoft’s breadth of customers in a wide range of sectors shows how their products help companies around the world.

“Innovation is a global phenomenon,” he said, “I wouldn’t say it’s happening in one place more than another.”

Overall, Tatarinov was ebullient about how Convergence lets Microsoft’s customers tell their stories, and show how the company is helping make a difference in a wide range of sectors.

“These are really solid customer stories…at the end of the day, its innovation that these customers do best.”

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