Microsoft and Fujitsu are the latest companies to have entered into an M2M/IoT alliance, combining Fujitsu’s IoT/M2M platform and Eco-Management Dashboard with Microsoft’s Windows software and Azure cloud services.
For some time, Fujitsu has used its Eco-Management dashboard that uses state-of-the-art agricultural, manufacturing and communication techniques, to produce low-potassium lettuce for dialysis patients with chronic kidney conditions. By collaborating with Azure, the solution will be capable of delivering real-time visualization of the engineering process for big data analytics to improve the entire production process and inform decision-making, all of which will result in more efficient operations and reduced energy costs.
The demand for more efficient services in the manufacturing sector has led to a massive increase in the number of M2M connections in this space. According Verizon’s 2015 State of the Market report, there was 204% year-on-year growth in M2M connections in the manufacturing sector and represents their fastest growing M2M sector.
Both Microsoft and Fujitsu have stated that the solution has a range of different applications and can be tailored to a wide array of different sectors, which in turn will give both companies experience of other markets.
This move is not the first by either company into developing IoT/M2M solutions. It follows Fujitsu’s IoT drive to expand its core data centres in Japan in order to accelerate demand for its cloud services. For Microsoft, this is one of two recent IoT collaborations, the other being its partnership with Miele, the manufacturer of domestic appliances, to produce a new breed of smart appliances, following a proof-of-concept study.