Microsoft acquires Italy's Solair to expand IoT offerings

Microsoft has acquired Italian company Solair, which builds its Internet of Things (IoT) offerings on Microsoft's Azure platform.

Sam George, Microsoft's partner director for Azure IoT, announced the acquisition in a blog post yesterday.

The 2011-founded company was launched to develop IoT solutions aimed at the enterprise business market and created applications for remote monitoring of AEG Power Solutions' uninterruptible power supplies, predictive maintenance for Bosch Rexroth and electricity optimisation for Japan-based manufacturer Aiwa.

Microsoft's Azure Internet of Things suite is also aimed at helping enterprise customers monitor a wide variety of systems and apply data analytics to improve efficiency and create new revenue-producing services. 

George said in his blog post that Microsoft would integrate Solair's technology into its own to enhance its enterprise IoT offerings.

"Solair shares our ambition for helping customers harness their untapped data and create new intelligence with IoT, and this acquisition supports our strategy to deliver the most complete IoT offering for enterprises," George said.

He added the company would provide more specifics at a later time about "how Solair is helping us build the intelligent cloud in the future."

Solair CEO, Tom Davis, said on the company's website that the acquisition marked a new chapter for his company after five years of growth aimed at the expanding IoT market.

The two companies have not revealed the financial terms of the deal.

Solair's technology, runs on Microsoft's Azure cloud services, offers IoT services for a variety of markets, including home automation, smart metering, remote maintenance and inventory management.

Microsoft has specified what it would gain from Solair's technology, but it promised to release more details on the integration of the two companies  later.

According to commentators, Azure formed a key component of Microsoft's corporate strategy.

The company was betting big on its cloud offerings, and acquisitions of the kind were aimed at getting more companies to buy into the Azure ecosystem, especially for new workloads like those driven by IoT.