Microsoft Boosts Azure IoT With Solair Acquisition

Microsoft is strengthening its cloud-based Azure Internet of Things (IoT) platform with the acquisition of Italian firm Solair.

Terms of the deal are scarce, with Microsoft not disclosing the terms of the deal and stating that details of how Solair’s staff and technology will boost the company’s IoT efforts.

Solair is most active in the manufacturing, retail, food & beverage and transportation industries, and has worked on projects such as connected coffee machines and factory efficiency.

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“From the very start, our mission has been to help customers quickly and easily gain access to the huge benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT),” said Solair CEO Tom Davis.

“By building our solutions based on real customer requirements that allow them to gain real value, I’m confident that Solair’s technology and talent will be able to make an important contribution to Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite and Microsoft’s broader IoT ambitions.”

Solair’s work will now be incorporated into Azure IoT, which Microsoft officially made publicly available in February, and has already been used to support the Solair’s previous endeavours.

This includes working with espresso machine maker Rancilio Group to remotely monitor machines, and a Smart Factory Advisor application which has helped Japanese manufacturers increase production capacity and optimise energy efficiency.

“Solair shares our ambition for helping customers harness their untapped data and create new intelligence with IoT, and this acquisition supports our strategy to deliver the most complete IoT offering for enterprises,” added Sam George, partner director at Azure IoT.

Recent research by Gartner estimates that the number of businesses adopting IoT technology will rise by half in 2016, when 43 percent of all organisations will have some kind of connected technology in place.

Among TechWeekEurope readers, 80 percent have either adopted IoT applications or plan to, but home use is outpacing that of the office.

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