Microsoft acquires Solair, a cloud based IoT platform

United States: Microsoft is strengthening its modern technologies services via inorganic growth strategy. Towards the same, Microsoft has acquired an Italy based IoT platform start-up named Solair.

Solair started its operations in 2011 and was already using Azure cloud services for its IoT platform. The start-up has customers across the sectors including retail, manufacturing, food & beverages, and transportation. Solair IoT solutions are used to increase the production capacity, optimize energy efficiency, smart maintenance, Smart Metering, smart vending, smart building to name a few.

Microsoft aims to acquire Solair is to integrate the Solair’s IoT technology into its Azure IoT Suite to enhance the overall offerings for the enterprise customers. As well, the technology giant plans to utilize Solair’s technology to build an intelligent cloud in the near future.

The modern technology ecosystem is hyper-dynamic and technology giants such as Microsoft are improving their current offering as well innovating the future technology products either by partnering with the start-ups or by acquiring them. The IoT market across the globe is witnessing consolidation where large enterprises are acquiring start-ups to grow in the market at the faster rate.

Further, across the world, the IoT market is witnessing exponential growth and India being a second technology start-up hub in the world witnesses many multi-dimensional developments. Market Research and Consulting firm, TechSci Research has recently published a report named, “India Internet of Things (IoT) Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020”, with growing need for connectivity among devices, systems and services using variety of protocols and domains; automating business processes; and real-time monitoring & tracking of services and systems, Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been gaining increasing market traction over the last few years. In the IoT concept, a ‘Thing’ can be any natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address and provided an ability to transfer data over a network. IoT market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR over 28% during 2015- 2020.