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"The Internet of Things gold rush is on as startups and tech heavyweights alike seek to cash in on a burgeoning universe of connected devices. Thus Microsoft&amp;#8217;s latest alliance with Jasper Technologies, which manages wireless network connections to those devices.\nThe two companies said they will integrate Jasper&amp;#8217;s Control Center into Microsoft&amp;#8217;s evolving Azure Internet of Things suite. What Jasper brings is real-world experience in early IoT applications with customers like ABB and Starbucks. Jasper&amp;#8217;s service manages cellular wireless connections to devices. That&amp;#8217;s important because, by definition, many remote-site applications do not have the luxury of Wi-Fi or hard-wired connections, said Sam George, partner director for Azure IoT and Service Fabric.\nJasper&amp;#8217;s software handles the provisioning, policy, network controls and billing of that connectivity, said Macario Namie, Jasper&amp;#8217;s VP of strategy. The Santa Clara, Calif. company also monitors performance and flags potential problems as they happen.\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\nThe Microsoft\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMSFT\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Azure IoT Suite (has Microsoft never met a product it doesn&amp;#8217;t want to jam into a suite?) was announced in March and is due later this year. It promises to include a set of services and an event hub that, taken together, will provide a preconfigured &amp;#8220;end-to-end&amp;#8221; solution that will be easy for customers to set up. &amp;#8220;They can go to their Azure portal, create an asset for remote monitoring or predictive maintenance, and the suite will provision the right services,&amp;#8221; George said.\nThese applications are key for applications in remote and dirty areas. Big industrial equipment suppliers like Rockwell Automation \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tROK\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t and General Electric\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGE\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t are banking that the Internet of industrial things, properly enabled, will let customers know in advance when a part is faltering so they can schedule maintenance before it blows, for example. In theory that means they don&amp;#8217;t have to staff remote sites 24/7 with maintenance people, but instead make sure the right person with the right part is dispatched to the right place to take care of the problem before it becomes a catastrophe.\nAs John Nesi, vice president of market development for Rockwell, told Fortune recently, a $10 air filter that sucks in too much grit can crash a million-dollar compressor. Obviously, not good.\nThe successful harnessing of IoT would enable the maker of an industrial part to only sell not only the physical part, but offer customers a continuous flow of information and services around that part. Thus, the real opportunity of the IoT is not in the &amp;#8220;things&amp;#8221; themselves but in the services enabled by those things.\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\nJasper doesn&amp;#8217;t have an analogous alliance with cloud competitors Amazon\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAMZN\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Web Services or Google\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tGOOG\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Cloud Platform, but Namie said the deal is not exclusive. In March, Jasper announced similar pacts with SAP \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSAP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t and Salesforce\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCRM\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t to integrate its service with HANA and Salesforce CRM respectively.\nSubscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune\u2019s daily newsletter on the business of technology."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://fortune.com/2015/07/30/microsoft-jasper-team-on-iot/>