At Build 2018, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, Satya Nadella and other Microsoft leaders showcased new technologies and capabilities to extend to the intelligent edge.
The company shared that smart devices are proliferating in homes and businesses across the globe, with more than 20 billion expected by 2020. These devices are powering advanced ways to see, listen, reason and predict, without constant connectivity to the cloud. Microsoft calls it the intelligent edge, and shared how it is opening opportunities for consumers, businesses, and entire industries.
According to Nadella, the era of the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge is upon us and the new advancements by Microsoft create
incredible developer opportunity but comes with a responsibility to ensure the technology we build is trusted and benefits all.
Here are the key announcements from the keynote on Day 1 of Build 2018:
- Microsoft is open sourcing the Azure IOT Edge Runtime, allowing customers to modify, debug and have more transparency and control for edge applications.
- Custom Vision will now run on Azure IOT Edge, enabling devices such as drones and industrial equipment can take critical action quickly without requiring cloud connectivity. This is the first Azure Cognitive Service to support edge deployment, with more coming to Azure IOT Edge over the next several months.
- DJI, the world’s biggest drone company, is partnering with Microsoft to create a new SDK for Windows 10 PCs, and they have also selected Azure as their preferred cloud provider to further their commercial drone and SaaS solutions. The SDK will bring full flight control and real-time data transfer capabilities to over 700m Windows 10 active devices globally.
- Microsoft announced a joint effort with Qualcomm Technologies to create a vision AI developer kit running Azure IoT Edge. This solution makes available the key hardware and software required to develop camera-based IoT solutions.
Further reading: Azure, Build, Build 2018
