Microsoft to invest $5 billion in IoT in the next 4 years

Microsoft has announced that it will invest US$5 billion in the Internet of Things (IoT) globally over the next four years. This increased investment will support continued research and innovation in IoT and what is ultimately evolving to be the new intelligent edge.

With Microsoft's IoT platform spanning cloud, operating system and devices, the company is simplifying the IoT journey so any customer, regardless of size, technical expertise, budget, industry or other factors, can create trusted, connected solutions that improve business and customer experiences, as well as the daily lives of people all over the world.

This will support Microsoft's technology platform, as well as supporting programs thereby enabling continued research and development in key areas, including securing IoT, creating development tools and intelligent services for IoT and the edge, and investments to grow our partner ecosystem. Customers and partners can expect new products and services, offerings, resources and programs.

In India, Microsoft's investment will ensure that the company continues to meet all its customers' and partners' needs, both, now and in the future as they develop new and increasingly sophisticated IoT solutions. IoT is gathering momentum in India, and impacting daily lives: saving electricity, resources, predictive healthcare, automobile safety and more. Microsoft Azure is the preferred platform powering a variety of IoT devices.

Microsoft Azure IoT is powering India's first Smart Street Lighting Project for in Jaipur, underscoring Microsoft's mission of transforming public spaces digitally. The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) operates and maintains over 100,000 public street lights within the city.

However, one of three in these lamps did not work and many others functioned poorly, leading to several areas of the city being in the dark. Microsoft's partner Samudra LED has now deployed a customized Microsoft IoT-platform-based solution created by ISV Precimetrix to monitor, control and manage smart LED public street lights.

IoT will lead to a $1.9 trillion productivity increase and $177 billion in reduced costs by 2020 (A.T. Kearney). This effect will be pervasive, from connected homes and cars to manufacturers to smart cities and utilities-and everything in between.

Pre-empting this, Microsoft announced Microsoft IoT Central, the first highly scalable IoT SaaS solution, that has built-in support for IoT best practices and world class security along with the reliability, regional availability, and global scale of the Azure cloud.