Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated that Microsoft did not believe there would ever be a single centralized metaverse. Instead, he believes there will be many metaverse platforms. While its Teams for Mesh platform makes for fun demonstrations of what many think of when they hear “metaverse,” Microsoft is also evolving its more realistic “industrial metaverse” platform.
At the Build Developer Conference, which will be held at the end of the month, one of Microsoft’s main sessions will focus on “Preparing for the metaverse”. According to the description, this session will focus on how businesses can benefit from “metaverse experiences.” There will also be a session on how the IoT (internet of things) powers everything, “from the edge to the metaverse”.
Microsoft has been working for more than a year to position all of the company’s technologies to be relevant to those talking about the metaverse. Last year at the Build conference, Microsoft started talking about the enterprise metaverse technology stack. The company said everything from Azure IoT, Azure Digital Twins, and Azure Maps, to Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure AI, Power Platform, and HoloLens formed the foundation for upcoming “metaverse apps.”
Immersive spaces for meetings with Mesh
Microsoft unveiled its Azure-powered Mesh mixed-reality collaboration platform at the Build conference in May 2021. Later, at Ignite in the fall, Microsoft announced plans to integrate Mesh with Teams and make a preview of Mesh for Teams in 2022, which would include a set of pre-built immersive spaces for meetings, and later, tools for customers to create their own custom spaces.
On Microsoft’s latest earnings conference call, Satya Nadella said Microsoft is “at the forefront of innovation in the new industry metaverse.” He cited the company’s work in IoT, digital twins, mixed reality applications, and connected spaces (which, for now, refers to the Dynamics 365 product formerly known as Connected Store) as the fundamental elements of its industrial metaverse strategy.
Connected Spaces appears to be a category where Microsoft will add new SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) over time and use its machine learning, computer vision, and IoT technologies to help customers better understand their environments. physical.
IoT and digital twins at the root of the metaverse
In a recent LinkedIn post, Tony Shakib, GM/Partner for Azure IoT at Microsoft, contributed to the discussion on Microsoft’s enterprise metaverse. IoT and digital twin technologies are, he says, still central to the company’s worldview: “Our industrial metaverse is a collection of smart cloud and smart edge capabilities that work together. At their core are Azure IoT, which connects physical assets and runs cloud intelligence – and Azure Digital Twins, which offers the ability to model anything physical or logical, from simple devices to products. to complex environments. »
While holoportation simulations and customizable avatars interacting in fancy virtual worlds are certainly on Microsoft’s metaverse roadmap, it’s the shorter-term deliverables in the edge/IoT, machine learning, and digital twin spaces that will be where Microsoft and partners will likely make money above all else.
We hope that we will have more information on this vision of the industrial metaverse during the Build conference on May 24.
Source: ZDNet.com