Microsoft IoT Central Software Launches

Microsoft is adding to their IoT portfolio with the launch of Microsoft IoT Central, a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. The service is designed to to offer enterprises a simple way to create IoT scenarios without needing cloud expertise.

“Microsoft IoT Central simplifies the development process and makes it easy and fast for customers to get started, making the digital transformation more accessible to everyone,” the company said on their blog.

“While we find that IoT is a big differentiator, one of the things we’re finding in the broader market is that there is still a broad set of skill sets needed to implement IoT solutions. Customers here don’t need any cloud solutions expertise,” Microsoft’s director of IoT Sam George told TechCrunch.

IoT Central will be available alongside their Azure IoT Suite platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering. It’s touted as offering manufactures sharply increased speed in bringing new products to market.  The company has also announced the following new IoT products and services:

• Azure Time Series Insights- a managed analytics and data visualization service
• Azure IoT Suite Connected Factory– A preconfigured offering in the Azure IoT Suite that allows companies to connect on-premises OPC UA and OPC Classic devices to the Microsoft Cloud
• Microsoft Azure IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service
• Azure Stream Analytics on Edge Devices
• Support for DICE and HSM industry wide security standards

Microsoft said IoT Central will become publically available in the coming months. Visit MicrosoftIoTCentral.com to sign up for updates.

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Enterprise IoT platforms