Telefónica, a leading provider of a wide range of IoT solutions and services, announced today an agreement with Microsoft Azure IoT that includes three main areas of collaboration: product integration features, joint go to market and innovation.

Public cloud usage has become progressively mainstream for IoT solutions. However, companies commonly face challenges when connecting their devices to develop IoT services such as unreliable services and data flows traceability. Furthermore, there is a requirement for device credentials which results in higher costs and the need for firmware customisation, as well as higher data and battery consumption due to cyphered communications, in some cases not supported by selected IoT devices.

“By integrating Telefónica’s IoT connectivity platform with Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, Telefónica will offer its customers a global IoT Managed Connectivity Solution that helps Telefónica’s customers to easily, securely and reliably connect their IoT devices to Azure IoT Hub. The purpose of this integration is to solve customer issues when streaming data from device to cloud, leveraging on network authentication and identity to offer a zero-touch device provisioning, reducing device complexity and required customization” explains Vicente Muñoz, Chief IoT Officer of Telefónica.

Telefónica and Microsoft have jointly developed an IoT preconfigured solution, putting value in integrating Telefónica Managed Connectivity data into Microsoft Azure IoT Suite Remote Monitoring.

Telefónica will also integrate its IoT connectivity platform APIs with Azure IoT Device Twins, providing a single interface for SW development and standard components in Microsoft Azure. This will enable more sophisticated analytics and better diagnosis capabilities.

Both companies will also explore collaboration for new market strategies with focus on marketplaces and innovation projects regarding new IoT connectivity, IoT security and devices identity challenges. These product integrations will allow a better joint offering to Telefónica and Microsoft customers.

Ana Alonso, director Enterprise Customers from Microsoft Spain mentioned: “Partnering with Telefónica will provide Telefónica´s customer base with end-to-end IoT solutions covering both Telefónica´s managed connectivity services and Microsoft´s leading cloud-based IoT SaaS and PaaS capabilities with an integrated approach on Security, Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence”.