Distilled Thoughts (IoT, Integration & Cloud)

Virtual Power Plant - Solving renewable energy challenges with the Azure IoT

Rahul Garg MS — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 07:15:20 GMT

Did you know that Hawaii has a plan to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2045? The challenge with power grid is that too much generation can overwhelm the grid while insufficient generation leaves utility companies scrambling for backup solutions. To solve those challenges, Steffes wanted to create an affordable and efficient way to store and use excess energy. Steffes designed the Grid-Interactive Electric Thermal Storage (GETS) system with help from Microsoft partner, Mesh Systems, and also took advantage of Microsoft Orleans, an open source framework from Microsoft Research that is used to build distributed interactive applications. The Orleans framework enabled Steffes to create virtual, in-memory copies of physical devices governed by complex business logic (like a mapping of virtual power plant to a real one). By using Azure IoT technologies to connect ordinary consumer devices like water heaters, Steffes is empowering home owners to help write the next chapter on sustainability. Click here to learn more: https://customers.microsoft.com/Pages/CustomerStory.aspx?recid=26745

Connected Coffee machines - raising the Beverage Service to new heights using Azure IoT

Rahul Garg MS — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 07:08:04 GMT

BUNN’s makes all kinds of coffee products from home brewer machines to a line of commercial automated espresso machines that is loved & used worldwide. To meet its lofty goals of providing unmatched service to it's customers, BUNN and Mesh Systems used IoT services provided by Microsoft Azure, which includes preconfigured solutions that enable organizations to capture and analyze data from any source. It can now remotely send a text message alert to customers letting them know that the machine is out of a beverage product or that cleaning is needed. This world class Real-time diagnostics and proactive maintenance has allowed BUNN's customers to enjoy bigger profit margins when they purchase BUNN equipment, which gives everyone a business advantage. Click here to read the full story: https://customers.microsoft.com/Pages/CustomerStory.aspx?recid=26553

Saving millions of dollars with Azure IoT powered Smart Lighting

Rahul Garg MS — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 06:54:29 GMT

Controlling the lighting, as our retailers know it well, and supplying only ON DEMAND is key to improving both energy efficiency and safety. As a leader in this space, WLS had the clear goals of helping customers become more energy-efficient while improving lighting performance. What that meant was a highly scalable platform that would enable two-way communication with light fixtures in virtually any location. Using Microsoft Azure, our Partners, Mesh Systems, designed the software systems to facilitate high-scale, IoT deployment to almost any type of device. WLS now offers control of energy-efficient LED lighting to retailers across North America. WLS has over 400 shopping centers and more than 120,000 light fixtures connected to the platform and expects to continue expanding its customer base. With an intelligent lighting system based on Azure & Azure IoT technologies, retailers finally have a clear path to better energy efficiency at significantly lower costs. Click here for more details: https://customers.microsoft.com/Pages/CustomerStory.aspx?recid=26578

GOJO, the inventors of PURELL, measures hand hygiene compliance through Microsoft Azure IoT services

Rahul Garg MS — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 20:53:25 GMT

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are a major epidemic in our Health Care Industry today. One in twenty patients in a hospital acquire an HAI during a hospital visit. Nearly 100,000 people die from an HAI every year, it costs the US healthcare system $35B a year, and an estimated $1,100 per admission. Proper hand washing is the most effective way to reduce HAIs, but hospitals lack an effective means of tracking hygiene practices and patterns. Click the following link to see how GOJO solved it: https://lnkd.in/b2hRBe5

Take your first steps with Azure IoT Suite

Rahul Garg MS — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:07:54 GMT

For Enterprises, large & small looking at an IoT initiative, now is the time to take the first step. Work with us and our new IoT Partner ecosystem to enable your company to improve business processes and create new models to stay ahead of the competition. Click on the link for more details: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/internet-of-things/azure-iot-suite.aspx

Transforming the Elevator Industry with IoT

Rahul Garg MS — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:58:04 GMT

ThyssenKrupp was a late entry in the world of 150-year-old elevator industry, they started only 40 years ago! But ThyssenKrupp was remarkably quick to make a name for itself with the development of its TWIN elevator and rope-less MULTI technologies. With the recent rise of cloud technology and the Internet of Things (IoT), the company is once again seizing the opportunity to transform an industry that has seen little change since the Industrial Age. Click to see the detailed blog on the transformational impact of IoT in the Elevator industry: https://blogs.microsoft.com/business-matters/2015/10/27/transforming-the-urban-landscape-thyssenkrupp-elevator-takes-building-efficiency-to-new-heights/

Using IoT to keep customers’ machinery powered and ready 24x7!

Rahul Garg MS — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 11:55:00 GMT

The Power Management company, ABT, saw a real value in automating the collection and analysis of data to track the use and condition of batteries moving over from years of manual processes. One of our leading US IoT Partners, Mariner, helped ABT create a remote monitoring-solution built on Microsoft Azure IoT services that provides a solid advantage over competitors by streamlining the operations and also cutting cost offering a 30 percent savings on power costs for their customers! The detailed case study is available on out IoT Blogs page. Big thanks to Phil & Sally from the Mariner team and Molly from our team who worked closely to publish this out!

Starting the blogs again with new role!

Rahul Garg MS — Sun, 26 Jul 2015 11:25:40 GMT

About 5 months ago, I took the role of IoT Commercial Lead in US and I can say that I absolutely love my job! SLT at Microsoft asked me to keep looking after the Data Platform business until June and since last month I am only focused on IoT now! Very excited and looking forward to driving IoT in US!

want to learn javascript self-paced?

rahulgarg1 — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:04:50 GMT

Try - https://www.codecademy.com/ (my colleague, Mark Brown from the Azure team pointed this out) - love the low-friction experience to get started!

Hybrid Reference Implementation Using BizTalk Server, Windows Azure & SQL Azure

rahulgarg1 — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:44:42 GMT

G'day folks,

The following reference implementation came out of our CAT team (Field experts). This reference implementation comprises of a production quality, fully documented hybrid solution that demonstrates how customers can extend their existing on-premises BizTalk Server infrastructure into the Cloud. The solution is centered on the common requirements for processing large volumes of transactions originated from the on-premises system and off-loaded into the Windows Azure to take advantage of elasticity and on-demand compute power of the Cloud platform. The reference implementation addresses the above requirements and provides an end-to-end technical solution architected and built for scale-out.

Enjoy!