TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The first Microsoft
IoT Expo is held at Hua Nan Bank International Conference Center
today, together with the official launch of Microsoft IoT
Innovation Center. A total of 393 companies from 17 countries
gathered at this expo which features over 70 keynote speeches and
33 IoT applications showcases, all focusing on smart city, retail,
manufacturing, and life. Expo participants not only gain global
insights but also are endowed with technology transfer and
match-making opportunities. It is expected that this event will
foster cross-discipline and highly professional partnerships, which
helps IoT players to not only get a foothold in Asia and but also further target the global
market.
Microsoft IoT Innovation Center as the beginning for global
IoT deployment
Since the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on IoT
with the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) last October,
Microsoft has been promoting several IoT related industry and
talent development programs in Taiwan. For example, the first DevDays Asia,
which took place this past April with informative presentations
from over ten information scientists and architects, who assisted
with solving technical issues. In July, an IoT solution constructed
by Taiwanese companies was introduced in WPC, an annual conference
attended by tens of thousands of people, and soon became a
sought-after hit by partners around the world seeking
collaboration. All in all, Microsoft has helped 22 Taiwanese
companies with over 87 IoT devices to be Microsoft Azure Certified
for IoT by this September, with the number of certifications taking
up over 40% of all certified devices worldwide. As if the
aforementioned achievements are not enough in a year, Microsoft is
holding the Microsoft IoT Expo 2016 today, with the participation
of 393 companies and around 1,100 visitors from Taiwan and abroad. This expo displays 33 IoT
solutions, offers match-making meetings which enable in-depth
interaction among partners, and announces the official launch of
Microsoft IoT Innovation Center.
Sam George, General Manager,
Azure IoT, Microsoft, said, "Asia
is a critical and rapidly growing part of the IoT market and
Microsoft has already deployed the Azure IoT Suite to multiple
regions. We believe that through the first Microsoft IoT Expo,
our market leading IoT offerings and the newly launched Microsoft
IoT Innovation Center as a hub in Asia, we are enabling customers and partners
to realize the enormous business potential of IoT.
Jong-chin Shen, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Economic Affairs
(MOEA), said, "The government partners with Microsoft in building
the Microsoft IoT Innovation Center in hope of leveraging
Microsoft's R&D capability, cloud services, and data analytics
to integrate the IoT supply chain. The ultimate goal is to
transform Taiwan's hardware- and
component-centric business model into platform-based or
vertically-integrated solutions. We aspire to create value with
local IoT players and provide global IoT solutions to strive for
the lasting business visions."
"To promote the development of IoT ecosystem in Taiwan, Microsoft has adopted the 'outside-in'
strategy by bringing in global demand as a stimulus to Taiwanese
companies, driving them to enter the global IoT market," said
Steven Shaw, General Manager of
Microsoft Taiwan. "Following the relocation of Microsoft's office
on September 8, which materialized
digital transformation with a cloud-based, smart, and flexible
workspace, today we are pleased to launch the new Microsoft IoT
Innovation Center at Microsoft Taiwan. This office is easily
accessible by partners and clients, and it integrates the existing
IoT resources and designs IoT services."
Microsoft teams up with local partners in Taiwan to develop IoT solutions to be
implemented globally
Whether it is cross-discipline technology transfer or strategic
alliance, business model transformation or innovation, in the
digital era nowadays, seeking and linking resources is of
especially great importance. Microsoft takes advantage of its past
experience in managing industrial ecosystem and its rich software
potential to serve a broad clientele by rendering facility and
service assistance. Microsoft IoT Innovation Center has chosen
Taiwan, a place renowned for its
high-tech sector and hardware manufacturing, to gain a foothold in
the Asia market while aiming to
accelerate IoT deployment with partners worldwide.
Chris Phillips, General Manager,
Partner and Customer Ecosystem, Cloud Enterprise, Microsoft, said,
"Microsoft IoT Innovation Center in Taiwan is our starting point for capturing the
booming IoT opportunity in Asia by
accelerating the collaboration between Taiwan-based companies and global partners so
as to push forward IoT as services."
Allan Yang, CTO of Advantech
said, "By using Microsoft Azure's public cloud, we have
successfully promoted the uFleet logistics management system to
Tingtong Logistics in Shanghai,
China, and the UShop+ passenger volume statistics system to
the branch stores of Green Land supermarket's chained stores and
the retailers in Southeast Asia.
Managers can then monitor each store's operation via the Microsoft
Azure cloud platform."
"The partnership with Microsoft will help foster the exchanges
and development of IoT. NEC is looking forward to working or
exploring opportunities with Taiwan IoT partners," said
Gordon Gay, General Manager,
R&D, NEC Australia.
"IoT Technology will transform the value chain across the
company," said Dr. Jimmy (Chih-Yaung)
Chu, Chairman, Fair Friend Group. Joe Lin, General Manager of NEXCOM's IoT
Automation Solutions Business Group said "As we enter the year of
2016, Industry 4.0 has entered a 'testing phase' from an
'exploration phase.' The point is no longer about promotion but
implementation. NEXCOM focuses on IoT Automation Solutions to fully
connect industrial IoT to the cloud as well as to integrate
NexROBO, NexMotion (EtherCAT motion control), iAutomation, Device
Networking with Microsoft Azure's cloud platform. By leveraging
NEXCOM's IoT Studio to connect cloud software, IoT gateway and the
end devices at factory sites to the cloud, which has been
successfully introduced to well-known toy manufacturers, with
continuing plan for the development of batteries and smart
machinery manufacturers of electric cars in China. This will
help to realize the
integration of Industry 4.0 with cloud, bridge the last mile of
smart facotry, and finally assist manufacturers in operation and
improve competitiveness of the industry.
"AOPEN Australia focuses on the intergrated services of
industrial technology services to partner with local
businesses as well as the R&D team at APOEN, which provides
industry solutions in many professional fields such as retail, food
and beverages, enterprises and transportation to optimize
customers' experience and provides consulting services," said
Stephen Borg, GM for AOPEN
Australia.
According to Edward Tsai, Senior
Vice President, Trend Micro Consumer Product Planning and
Development: "From a security standpoint, IoT and IoV devices are
not manufactured with security in mind -- this often means the
creation of new attack vectors for hackers. It is our honor to
partner with Microsoft Corporate to offer a unique full range IoT
Security Solution across from Cloud, Network and Endpoint
protection which is helping manufactures away from hacking
concern."
The largest Microsoft IoT Expo in Taiwan maps out the future of IoT
The first Microsoft IoT Expo appealed to around 1,100
participants from 17 countries, indicating how hot the IoT topic
currently is. Apart from the morning keynote speeches on the first
day of the agenda and seminars on the four themes, there are
several open theaters on technical tracks. Microsoft even showcases
IoT applications co-developed with partners for engagement
experience, including a smart vending machine developed by AAEON,
which allows visitors to pay by swiping their badges, a
coffee-making robot developed by TECHMAN ROBOT Inc., which could be
started by the visitor badge. These devices record visitors'
purchase behaviors, laying the foundation for data analytics, such
as the popularity of drink items. The showcase area is a
Loopd-based smart solution, in which visitors first receive a small
sensing device on site to turn themselves into one of the "things"
connected to the Internet. After that, they can easily exchange
contact information with exhibitors and/or other participants by
simply touching a device. These sensing devices can even detect the
traffic of participants and analyze the hot spots. A Persuasive
Electric Vehicle, co-developed by Microsoft and MIT Media Lab by
using Microsoft's Cognitive services and Cortana Intelligent Suite,
is also on display. Still another special event would be the Gender
x IoT Forum during lunch time, focusing on borrowing the softness
and tenderness in female power to create a smarter, sweeter, and
super IoT-aided life.
Microsoft IoT Expo is held on October
13 and 14 (Thursday and Friday) at Hua Nan Bank
International Conference Center. To view the complete agenda,
please go to http://iotexpo.azurewebsites.net/.
Microsoft IoT Innovation Center operates as a "Federated Lab"
to accelerate IoT development
Microsoft IoT Innovation Center acts as a link between local IoT
partners and the outside world, with its missions being R&D
project integration, technology development, and international
collaboration. The implementation results will be reported directly
to the Microsoft headquarters and the center will play a strategic
role in IoT development.
Moreover, as Microsoft knows that field- and scenario-specific
IoT solutions need to be tested, verified, and improved with actual
clients' projects, Microsoft IoT Innovation Center therefore set up
the IoT Community Lab, providing partners with IoT technology
training of various difficulty levels and professional
consultation, and three IoT Scenario Labs, delivering tailor-made
services, such as technology development, architecture design, and
business consultation.
Cathy Yeh, Principal PM Manager,
Cloud Enterprise Product Group, Internet of Things Innovation
Center, said, "The development of IoT industry requires the
connection and integration of partners in multiple fields as well
as the resources from the industry, government, and academia both
in Taiwan and abroad. Microsoft
IoT Innovation Center operates as a 'Federated Lab', meaning that
in addition to the central office, representative partners in other
fields, such as smart manufacturing, smart healthcare,
transportation, retail and life, as well as startups and key
research institutes all contribute to establishing labs. Through
technology transfer, educational training, facility sharing,
middleware development, and collaborative projects, these labs work
as a federation. They learn from each other to develop hardware,
software, and services needed for IoT solutions."
For more information about "Microsoft Innovation Center", please
visit:
https://www.microsoft.com/taiwan/IoT/
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) is the leading
platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first
world, and its mission is to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Taiwan