Where will Microsoft spend $5B on IoT?
Microsoft’s announcement of $5 billion in new IoT investment is a public demonstration of the company’s commitment to the internet of things, but it's not immediatly clear what it will spend all that money on.
In a statement announcing the new spending – to be spread out over the next four years – Microsoft cited research from A.T. Kearney that said IoT will bring a nearly $2 trillion productivity increase to the global economy and a $177 billion reduction in business costs by the end of the decade.
There are a lot of use cases for IoT in the enterprise, and Microsoft listed several customer wins in its announcement, including Johnson Controls, Kohler and the Alaska Department of Transportation. Gartner research vice president for AI and IoT Mark Hung said that it’s possible to divide those cases into internal and external uses.