Microsoft has launched its first IoT Innovation Center for Asia in Taiwan. The center aims to offer cross-discipline technology transfer, strategic alliances, business model transformation and innovation opportunities.
Taiwan was chosen because of its renowned high-tech and hardware manufacturing sectors.
“The Microsoft IoT Innovation Center in Taiwan is our starting point for capturing the booming IoT opportunity in Asia,” said Chris Phillips, General Manager, Partner and Customer Ecosystem, Cloud Enterprise, Microsoft, during the Microsoft IoT Expo held in Taiwan.
“We aim to do this by accelerating the collaboration between Taiwan-based companies and global partners. We are already collaborating with close to 50 companies at the Innovation Center and based on the initial interest, we expect to have many more join us before the end of the year.”
The Microsoft IoT Innovation Center acts as a link between regional IoT partners and the world, covering R&D project integration, technology development, and international collaboration. As IoT solutions will need to be tested, verified, and improved via actual clients’ projects, the Innovation Center will also include an IoT Community Lab that provides partners with IoT technology training, professional consultation, and three IoT Scenario Labs, delivering tailor-made services, such as technology development, architecture design, and business consultation.
“The development of the IoT industry requires the connection and integration of partners in multiple fields as well as resources from the industry, government, and academia regionally,” said Cathy Yeh, Principal PM Manager, Cloud Enterprise Product Group, Internet of Things Innovation Center.
“Our regional ecosystem consists of 370 partners from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Philippines, India, Japan, Korea and China and cuts across industries including manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and retail. We provide access to and training on Azure IoT Suite, Cognitive Services, and Windows 10 IoT, facility sharing, middleware development, and collaborative projects, enabling members to learn from each other to develop hardware, software, and services needed for IoT solutions. Together, our partners are accelerating business transformation for our enterprise customers in several industries, including end-to-end solutions for retail and smart cities.”
Microsoft is keen on growing the IoT ecosystem in Asia and has been investing in it. About 50 per cent of all companies that are Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT exist within Asia.
Since the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on IoT with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in Taiwan last October, Microsoft has actively promoted several IoT related industry and talent development programs. For example, the first DevDays Asia took place in Taiwan last April with presentations from over 10 scientists and architects.
In July, an IoT solution originating from Taiwan was introduced at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2016, an annual conference attended by over partners from all over the world. The solution soon became sought-after by partners seeking collaborative efforts.
Sam George, General Manager, Azure IoT, said, “Asia is a critical and rapidly growing IoT market that is important to Microsoft. We have deployed the Azure IoT Suite to multiple regions in the world and believe that through the first Microsoft IoT Expo in Asia, our market leading IoT offerings and the newly launched Microsoft IoT Innovation Center will enable customers and partners to realize the enormous business potential of IoT.
Jong-chin Shen, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) from Taiwan said, “The government has partnered with Microsoft in the inception of the Microsoft IoT Innovation Center in order to leverage Microsoft’s R&D capability, cloud services, and data analytics to integrate into the IoT supply chain. The ultimate goal is to transform Taiwan’s hardware and component centric business model to a platform based or vertically integrated one. We aspire to provide local IoT players with the technology and support to create globally relevant IoT solutions.”