Dive Brief:
- Microsoft announced Tuesday it purchased Solair, a provider of IoT technology services based in Italy.
- Microsoft has been building up its IoT efforts recently and has released a few of Azure IoT-based products for public preview.
- Solair's technology will be added into the growing Azure IoT ecosystem, a company spokesman said.
Dive Insight:
The "acquisition supports our strategy to deliver the most complete IoT offering for enterprises," Sam George, partner director at Microsoft Azure IoT, said in an announcement.
Solair's cloud-based platform can be used for remote monitoring to help streamline the supply chain.
Microsoft isn’t the only company investing heavily in IoT. In February, Cisco announced it was buying Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion. Jasper provides an IoT platform that can connect devices like cars, wearable technology and medical devices. And Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich recently said Intel plans to focus on IoT as a "primary growth driver" going forward.
Gartner predicts there will be 25 billion or more IoT devices connected to the Internet by 2020.