Microsoft said late Wednesday that it will invest USD 5 billion in the Internet of Things (IoT) globally over the next four years.

“With Microsoft’s IoT platform spanning cloud, operating system and devices, Microsoft 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,” Microsoft said in a statement.

IoT is gaining momentum in India, and is being used for a wide variety of uses such as saving electricity, resources, predictive healthcare, automobile safety and more. Microsoft Azure is the preferred platform powering a variety of IoT devices, the technology giant said.

Companies using Microsoft products are using IoT in areas such as monitoring water quality- Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (125 stations) and Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWSDB) in Hubli, Dharwad and Bijapur (3 stations) use one such solution.

Microsoft IoT is also being used in the Smart Street Lighting Project for Jaipur, by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, in agriculture and in manufacturing for predictive maintenance.

According to research firm A T Kearney, IoT will lead to a USD 1.9 trillion productivity increase and USD 177 billion in reduced costs by 2020.

Microsoft’s IoT offerings include operating systems for devices, cloud services to control and secure them, advanced analytics to gain insights, and business applications to enable intelligent action.

Microsoft

United States