Microsoft Opens Insider IoT And AI Lab In Munich

Microsoft is continuing its push into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) by opening an Insider Lab dedicated to those technology areas in Munich.

As the third centre of its kind, following the launch of centres in Redmond, US and China, the goal of the Microsoft IoT & AI Insider Lab is to support companies ranging from startups to enterprises and allow them to tap into Microsoft’s expertise in order to develop IoT and AI technology.

Microsoft IoT & AI Insider Lab

Like the counterpart centres, the Munich lab will provide 24 hour, seven days a week access to its facilities, which range from office areas to sections designed for design and prototyping products and systems.

Before companies get into the lab they work with Microsoft to develop a “sprint plan” so that every moment they spend in the lab is as productive as possible.

“Companies have said their three weeks in the lab was worth four, five or six months of coding on their own,” says Cyra Richardson, Microsoft general manager of IoT business development.

Microsoft has engineers specialising in sensor hardware, cloud computing, and machine learning and AI, to help the companies get their technology off the ground.

Cisco is one of the partners helping Microsoft do this by making its complete IoT portfolio of hardware and systems available to the lab.

“Customers can get a first-hand experience of the combined power of Cisco IoT and Microsoft Azure IoT platform to develop innovative use cases in the IoT Insider lab. Customers can now securely connect devices, use intelligence at the edge and with Azure IoT achieve their business outcomes,” said Vikas Butaney, general manager at Cisco’s IoT Connectivity division.

While companies are set to benefit from the support of Microsoft and Cisco, the latter two also stand to benefit by getting more companies using their technologies, therefore building an IoT and AI ecosystem to boost and compliment Microsoft and Cisco’s in-house work on such technologies.

With Microsoft providing IoT kits with the help of Raspberry Pi, the Redmond company is showing no signs of slowdown when it comes to pursuing prevalent technology trends.

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