{"id":11090,"date":"2022-08-23T11:34:04","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T18:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=11090"},"modified":"2023-06-16T15:54:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T22:54:19","slug":"powering-iot-experiences-at-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/powering-iot-experiences-at-microsoft\/","title":{"rendered":"Powering IoT experiences at Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"
This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Microsoft\u2019s Smart buildings use IoT-driven experiences to make life easier for users. To unify the thousands of IoT devices needed to power these experiences, Microsoft Digital created the Digital Integration Platform.<\/p>\n
Microsoft\u2019s Smart buildings use IoT-driven experiences to make life easier for employees and guests. To unify the thousands of IoT devices needed to power these experiences, Microsoft Digital created the Digital Integration Platform.<\/p>\n
Microsoft is always looking for ways to make employees’ lives more productive and enjoyable. In leveraging IoT sensors, the company can convert real-world data into user experiences, like wayfinding, hotdesking, and room occupancy. But these outcomes rely on thousands of sensors originating from different IoT devices and designed by different suppliers. And no two buildings have the exact same IoT services. Consequently, there is no easy way to power fast and consistent IoT-supported benefits for employees and visitors.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, a new approach to integrated IoT device management allows Microsoft to standardize the process, introducing new efficiencies, seamless innovation, and positive outcomes for employees. The Digital Integration Platform (DIP) collects, processes, and shares inputs from all IoT devices and exposes necessary data in a uniform way, making it possible to support IoT-driven employee experiences at scale.<\/p>\n
As you enter a conference room, an occupancy sensor triggers, signaling a series of services and real-world events.<\/p>\n
Based on this activity, a light turns on. Elsewhere, a kiosk marks the room as \u201cin use.\u201d Simultaneously, a colleague looking to reserve a workspace checks for vacancies from a mobile app and sees which conference rooms are currently available.<\/p>\n
This ecosystem of sensors, services, and systems working in unison showcases some of the ways Microsoft uses IoT devices to create world-class environments. Microsoft Digital, the organization that powers, protects, and transforms Microsoft, aims to evolve more of its physical spaces into smart buildings: workplaces that combine IoT devices, automation, and the latest in cloud technology to enable modernization. Each connected innovation enhances the various user experiences, giving beneficiaries optimal conditions to stay productive.<\/p>\n
IoT-driven employee experience, like finding the nearest open workspace, is built on a wide array of sensors, devices, and services, all tied to a specific benefit or outcome. Wayfinding is one of many IoT-driven experiences Microsoft relies on to solve user problems or to simply make life easier for users. Productivity, movement, wellness, access\u2014all these pillars are supported by IoT solutions. Microsoft\u2019s Global Workplace Services team (GWS) and Microsoft Digital have a tight partnership to determine which IoT devices are needed to improve building operations and user productivity. By encouraging this dialogue, the company is able to design outcomes that can be supported by IoT. To get there, we conduct surveys, interviews, and research to match pain points to a solution.<\/p>\n
Once the experience is mapped out, Microsoft can work with suppliers to identify the devices and sensors that make up the IoT ecosystem. But these IoT devices all come from different suppliers, express insights in different ways, and don\u2019t always work well together.<\/p>\n
If there was a single global IoT supplier for devices, everything would be easier.<\/p>\n
Due to a variety of circumstances, including building and device age, region, availability, and use, it\u2019s impossible to procure IoT devices from a single source. Since each supplier provides slightly different sensors and devices for tracking similar real-world events, Microsoft Digital needed to create solutions and standards for integrating IoT systems. Thus, the DIP was born.<\/p>\n
Before Microsoft had a centralized approach to exposing data with the DIP, hotdesking, occupancy density, and other experiences were a lot more difficult to create. IoT devices are provisioned from a variety of suppliers, which complicates the ecosystem of devices across Microsoft\u2019s global smart buildings.<\/p>\n
Each supplier\u2019s device functions in a different way, creating variations into how data is generated and shared with Microsoft. Some suppliers push data to the cloud, and others use APIs that require Microsoft to request the data it needs. They can\u2019t simply focus on one single complication or challenge. Instead, GWS must regularly adjust based on the IoT system they\u2019re working with.<\/p>\n
In order to be vendor agnostic, Microsoft Digital developed the DIP. By abstracting the data coming from the vendor, Microsoft Digital can later expose that data downstream, creating a centralized interface for employee experiences to engage with.<\/p>\n
Instead of managing thousands of different sensors and devices that facilitate wayfinding, hotdesking, and occupancy throughout Microsoft smart buildings and campuses, Microsoft Digital relies on the DIP as an abstraction layer. The DIP gathers data and device telemetry into one place. By building a gateway with components and patterns, Microsoft Digital can enable productivity through common and familiar services\u2014whether they be kiosks, mobile apps, or websites.<\/p>\n
The DIP is the glue that ties the physical infrastructure with the digital world, and more specifically, that ties our buildings and IoT devices to our employee experiences. It also brings together the Microsoft services that power the platform, including Azure Digital Twins (ADT), Microsoft 365, Azure Maps, Time Series Insights, and Azure Data Lake.<\/p>\n
With ADT, Microsoft Digital is able to create a digital model of the global enterprise, from the largest campus down to the individual occupancy sensor. This model sits at the heart of the DIP and is kept live and up to date through sensor telemetry flowing into IoT Hub.<\/p>\n
The DIP supports multiple gateway models to integrate data from disparate subsystems. An IoT Edge gateway hosts Edge Modules bringing in data from previously siloed on-premises devices. Another IoT Edge module is used to integrate HVAC and other data from the Building Management System. Finally, a B2B gateway integrates telemetry from vendors with cloud-hosted infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Once ADT is updated with new data, the platform ensures that the Azure Maps state is updated in real-time and reflected in the employee experiences. Updates also flow into Time Series Insights for real-time visualization and analytics.<\/p>\n