Microsoft Azure Certified IoT Program provides system integrators and developers with access to an extensive partner ecosystem.

You may have heard that Lantronix has just become Microsoft Azure certified for Internet of Things (IoT). And I am guessing that your first response was “that’s nice” or more likely – “so what!!”

Why is this a big deal?

First, we must understand the direction of the market in response to IoT and the digital transformation—A.K.A. Industry 4.0. The numbers alone are very promising. Intel predicts that there will be 200 billion connected devices by 2020 and global spending will be $1.29 trillion by the same year according to IDC. If the words “billions or trillions” don’t excite you, focus on the undeniable reality that the Internet of Things and the digital transformation will reshape industries and offer lucrative opportunities for both partners and customers.

How do we get there?

We can all agree that when it comes to digitally transforming your business, it takes a village. Not only do you have to worry about the connectivity portion, but also you need to think about critical elements like cloud integration, virtual machines, databases, storage, and messaging features. These solution components are crucial for staying competitive and developing them can create serious roadblocks if you are starting without an established IoT framework.

What is the Microsoft Azure certified for IoT mean?

Boiled down, Microsoft Azure’s cloud-ready IoT certification provides system integrators and developers with access to an extensive partner ecosystem that reduces complexity, lowers costs, and speeds up your solution’s time to market. By adopting Microsoft IoT framework, your business can significantly offset the costs and headache of developing IoT solutions. And it’s only going to get better. According to Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Julia White, the tech giant plans to “invest $5 billion in the Internet of Things over the next four years [with the] goal of providing every customer the ability to transform their businesses with connected solutions.”

Why this matters to you:

Lantronix has always been at the forefront of receiving industry and global certifications for our products including ISO 9001, NIST, FCC part 15, Red, CE and Japan Radio Certification article 2-1 just to name a few. So how does this new certification change or improve the deployment of our products for our customers and partners? The certification program is two-fold.

First, this certification testing ensures that the Azure IoT SDK runs on Lantronix devices. Plus these Lantronix devices are tested for readiness, compatibility, and usability with the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite and Hub. Second, Lantronix offers simple instruction to connect its devices to the Microsoft Azure suite, enabling accelerated integration of rugged-edge IoT connectivity solutions in today’s Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. With a better understanding of the certification a couple of key benefits for Lantronix customers become clear:

1. Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT validates Lantronix’s ability to jump start our customers’ IoT projects with pre-tested devices, such as our dual band Wi-Fi IoT device gateway – the SGX 5150. It decreases the usual customization and work required for compatibility and helps customers get started quickly on the IoT implementation.
2. Simplifying IoT projects which are often complex and can take a long time to implement provides Lantronix customers with the opportunity to deploy completely integrated edge to cloud connectivity and management solutions to digitize their processes via real time access to machine data.

As IoT solutions continue to become critical in industries such as manufacturing, utilities, healthcare and government the ease of integration and reduced time of implementation provides a win-win solution for customers eager to update their systems with IoT functionality.

As the IoT market continues to grow collaboration and integration of devices that benefits end users must be a priority. Ease of use must be more than nice copy but a mantra for IoT companies who will support the evolution of the IoT community.

Connect Smart. Do More.