Firm is using the cloud to improve urban mobility, water quality and share real-time weather info
Elly Yates-Roberts |
At this year’s Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft has announced several new features in Azure to accelerate the development and success of smart city solutions.
According to a recent blogpost by Anthony Salcito, interim vice president of public sector at Microsoft, the firm is focusing heavily “to empower cities with the tools they need to engage and connect with their citizens, modernise the government workplace, enhance government and city services, and help improve security.”
Many of the new updates involve Azure Maps. For instance, the cloud solution now uses weather services to give cities an easy way to integrate real-time weather data into their applications. It also integrates with mobility-as-a-service company Moovit and visual assistance app Aira to make public transport more accessible to blind or low-vision users.
Microsoft has also made Azure Maps available on the Azure Government Cloud enabling US government agencies and cities to use geospatial and location intelligence capabilities in their cloud solutions for smart mobility, public safety, emergency management and more.
The Azure internet of things team at Microsoft also recently released 11 new industry app templates to showcase the types of solutions that the firm’s customers and partners can build, including water quality monitoring, water consumption monitoring and connected waste management.
Find out more from Microsoft at booth B223 at Smart City Expo World Congress which runs until 21 November.