Microsoft wants Azure to power the next gen of IoT devices

SAN FRANCISCO — Smart devices like Amazon Echo and Nest thermostats are only as intelligent as the data behind them. Otherwise, they're just dumb household gadgets. You can put a computer brain inside any of them, but real-time info will have to come from sensors, the Internet and, increasingly, cloud-connected services.

The Echo's Alexa voice assistant, for instance, has Amazon's cloud behind it

Now more future IoT devices and services could have Microsoft's Azure Cloud Services behind them. The company, which already handles a healthy amount of IoT traffic (2 trillion IoT messages are processed each week, according to Microsoft) announced at its annual Build conference that it's making brand new Azure IoT starter kits available to developers on Thursday. Read more...