IoT security solution aims to protect organisations’ data, privacy, safety and infrastructure
Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft has made its new Azure Sphere generally available to secure internet of things (IoT) devices and processes, and protect organisations’ data, privacy, safety and infrastructure.
The International Data Corporation estimates that there will be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by 2025. Organisations across all industries are leveraging the technology to pursue long-term success.
“Innovation, no matter how valuable, is not durable without a foundation of security,” said Halina McMaster, principal group programme manager at Microsoft in a recent Azure blog post. “When innovation is built on a secure foundation, you can be confident in its ability to endure and deliver value long into the future. Durable innovation requires future-proofing IoT investments by planning and investing in security upfront.
“With this in mind, we built Azure Sphere with multiple layers of protection and with continually improving security so that it’s possible to limit the reach of an attack and renew and enhance the security of a device over time.”
Starbucks is one of the companies that has already deployed Azure Sphere to provide consistent and quality customer experiences by ensuring that its IoT-enabled coffee machines always work properly.
Microsoft has worked with the coffee mogul to develop an external device called a guardian module that connects the company’s various equipment to Azure Sphere, to aggregate the 5 megabytes of data generated from each eight-hour shift, and pre-emptively identify any issues with the machines.
The solution could also enable Starbucks to send new coffee recipes directly to machines from the cloud, manage inventory and order supplies more efficiently.