Microsoft today announced the acquisition of Solair, the Italy-based company that has been delivering cloud-based IoT services for half a decade now.
Microsoft has already shown its keenness to emerge as a viable player in the IoT space when it announced suitable tweaks to its Windows 10 platform for application in the hot new emerging segment. While acquiring Solair can be considered a big push in that direction, the acquisition also makes a lot of sense in that the company already operates on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform, which makes it a lot simpler for Microsoft to integrate Solair’s technology into its Azure IoT Suite.
Microsoft didn’t spell out more details of the acquisition such as how it is going to affect its own efforts in IoT and so on. The financial aspect of the deal too has been kept under wraps.
As for Solair, the company which has been in existence since 2011 has built a name for itself serving clients from segments as diverse as home automation, food & beverage, inventory management and so on.
For instance, Solair has collaborated with the Rancilio Group to develop espresso machines for the latter that could be monitored remotely. This in turn contributed to better efficiency and cost reduction, thereby leading to higher profits.
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Similarly, the company is also credited with the creation of the Smart Factory Advisor app which it had developed to allow for greater efficiency of factories in Japan. With the new application, factories have a better means of keeping an eye on the production lines which in turn leads to better cost and energy efficiency thereby helping maximize profits.
Microsoft has also been quite vocal on how it wishes to capitalize on its Azure cloud platform to drive growth in future. It is keen to have more companies draw on the services of its Azure cloud services and the acquisition of Solair can be considered a move in the right direction.
