Microsoft launches public cloud 'Azure Location Based Services'

Technology giant Microsoft on Wednesday announced the launch of Azure Location Based Services - a new public cloud offering for enterprise customers, providing location capabilities built and integrated directly into Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

The newly launched location based service will provide cloud developers critical geographical data to power smart cities and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions across industries including manufacturing, automotive, logistics, urban planning and retail, among others.

"Microsoft is making efforts to solve mobility challenges and bring government bodies, private companies and automotive OEMs together, using Microsoft's intelligent cloud platform," said Sam George Director - Azure IoT, Microsoft while addressing Automobility LA 2017 in Los Angeles, California.

TomTom Telematics, will be the first official partner for the service, supplying critical location and real-time traffic data, providing Microsoft customers with advanced location and mapping capabilities. Microsoft also announced that Azure LBS will be launched in calendar year 2018 and will be available globally in more than 30 languages.

The company will also enter in a cloud with ICONIQ, a Chinese Electric Vehicle company. In the year 2018 Microsoft is expected to be joined in by several partners who will be showcasing various location, connected car and smart city-relevant technologies they are building on top of the Azure cloud.

However, Microsoft's Azure Location Based Services will also offer enterprise customers location capabilities integrated in the cloud to help any industry from manufacturing to healthcare to automotive track assets or improve traffic flow.

Microsoft is providing an enterprise-ready location service for customers to build location of things applications and easily access location insights through one dashboard, one subscription, and one bill.

Microsoft customers will benefit from TomTom's hyper-accurate location data enabled by hundreds of millions of connected devices, providing the most up to date maps.