I’m taking a rather heavenly perspective while reflecting upon Microsoft’s vision for the Internet of Things (IoT). It seems that when it comes to ‘all things connected,’ the essential premise of the IoT, they’re definitely looking upwards in terms of where their future lies. Yes, of course, I’m talking about that all-important Cloud – the one with all the big data and giant expectations. It may be a light and fluffy view of connected assets but, as so often in life, the best ideas are often the simplest.
Keeping everyone in the loop
Certainly in terms of costly outages Microsoft’s vision of prescriptive maintenance is a Godsend, allowing businesses of all sizes to be alerted to any issues before they become operational problems with Microsoft Azure portal whereas, on a smaller scale, Windows 10 IoT Core allows you to connect your devices from your PC. As such, you’re empowered with a set of truly portable visualisation tools, meaning quite simply, that all those data-hungry analytics will be accessible and updatable in real-time from wherever you are.
And it doesn’t stop there – the IoT bubble will also encapsulate existing business systems such as CRM, ERP and Supply Chain processes, keeping everyone in the loop as to what’s going on and where and, if necessary, generating notifications such as order tickets and support requests to staff, suppliers and those all-important customers.
A nice little earner
This need to provide a bridge between devices through a unified system is a vision shared by ARM Holdings who recently made a nice little earner in the ballpark of $32 billion by selling up to Japan’s SoftBank – a corporation who clearly have visions of IoT ‘sugarplums dancing in their heads,’ if their recent announcements are anything to go by:
“Cows would be connected, chickens would be connected, the sheep would be connected.” – SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
Somebody please call the farmer and tell him one of the pumpkins has escaped!
Anyway, let’s give credit where credit’s due; more than just chip design technologists, ARM has made some significant strides in new markets such as building a 90% share in total automotive “infotainment” processors, showing it can proudly strut its stuff in this brave new connected world.
Looking down from the Cloud it’s easy to see why Microsoft has set its IoT sights so high. After all, the weather’s better up here, the air fresh and from way up here everything just seems so much more integrated and achievable.
Until next time…
So, this is where I set the stage, call it a prelude if you like, to my quest to build my knowledge further and to share the secrets of ‘What empowers Skype TX?’. I reached out to NewTek, QuickLink and Riedel and was delighted that all three partners gladly responded to my request to both better understand their respective technologies and to glean how, ultimately, Skype TX works!
Over the next few months I plan to extract, or possibly tussle with the partners to reveal as much as they can about their technologies in order to share the Skype TX proposition. I’d like to provide an insight into how all the bits, nibbles and bytes combine to uniquely offer broadcasters a product that delivers HD Skype quality video. This will happen in a series of three columns where I will tell each partner’s story and describe how they deliver their broadcast quality experience through their dedicated Skype TX hardware.
So this is where a ‘happy as a cloud’ Dr G signs off.
Originally published in Skype in Media.
