Azure IoT partners are enabling the second wave of digital transformation

Our goal within the Azure IoT team is to build the largest ecosystem of developers and partners to enable customers to navigate—as Satya Nadella recently described— the second wave of digital transformation sweeping every industry.

At Microsoft Azure, we help partners meet changing customer demand. Azure IoT partners benefit from technical enablement including IoT Learning Paths and IoT Certifications. They also benefit from commercial programs including the Azure Certified for Device program, the Microsoft commercial marketplace, and co-selling with Microsoft.

Next week, the Azure IoT engineering team is hosting our third annual IoT Summit—this year it is digital—with over 1200 participants from hundreds of companies. At the IoT Summit, our partners will hear from Microsoft leaders including Jason Zander, Sam George, John Montgomery, and Roanne Sones. Below I touch on key themes we’ll be discussing and that we’re seeing drive the second wave of digital transformation referenced by Satya.

The use of digital twin technology is rising

Today, organizations are showing a growing appetite for understanding complex interactions across environments. With Microsoft Azure Digital Twins now generally available, we are seeing customers model factories, buildings, stadiums, and even entire cities as well as facilities, manufactured products, and supply chains. Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction worked with Microsoft and Bentley Systems to develop a digital twin of its wind farms to maximize energy production and reduce maintenance costs.

AI at the Edge is mainstream

Artificial intelligence (AI) has traditionally been deployed in the cloud because of the need for massive amounts of computing resources. With the advent of AI-optimized hardware and container-packaged analytics applications, we’re seeing AI applied at the edge. Azure IoT Edge and Azure Stack Hub devices run AI algorithms to analyze and act on data locally. In addition to reducing bandwidth, AI at the edge facilitates real-time decision making. Schneider Electronic is applying Machine Learning and AI at the edge with its Realift oil pumps to anticipate impending mechanical failure and identify deviations from the pump’s optimal operating conditions.

Prioritizing security in IoT is critical

Microsoft is a proactive leader in IoT security, with the largest portfolio of regulatory and compliance certifications in the industry. As businesses increasingly rely on connected devices to optimize their operations, the number of IoT and Operational Technology (OT) endpoints is growing dramatically—industry analysts have estimated that Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) will soon be responsible for an attack surface multiple times larger than just a few years ago. Tools like Azure Defender for IoT which just became generally available enable industrial and critical infrastructure organizations to proactively and continuously detect, investigate, and hunt for threats in their IoT and OT environments.

Moving forward

We thank our partners for their input, insight, and enthusiasm and look forward to next week’s event.

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