

Azure Intelligent Systems Service - streametry
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/intelligent-systems-service.aspx

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dmritard96
Its interesting to watch all the 'we are the platform for the internet of
things' services.

As a hardware startup founder, working on IoT devices, I find it interesting
that so few are working on the actual IoT devices but so many are working on
software to support it. It's great to see interest and it's great to have
alternatives to building our cloud backends ourselves, but I would love to see
more actual IoT devices actually navigating the messiness that is going from
prototype to product. While this solves a problem, relative to tooling,
navigating the China (or US manufacturing), and funding, the last thing we are
worried about is building our backend system. Granted, our team has experience
building distributed systems and full stack hardware <-> software
experience...

Seems to be a ton of 'me toos' in this space and I would love to see the
traction statistics they get from actual IoT device builders. Most IoT device
builders fancy themselves becoming the platform instead of just an
accessory...

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wslh
_I find it interesting that so few are working on the actual IoT devices but
so many are working on software to support it._

I think you know the answer: generally, hardware is harder than software for a
startup. There was a post about a hardware kickstarter project that failed:
"Kickstarter project spent $3.5M to finish a prototype and ended in disaster"
[1] and a list here: List of Failed Kickstarter Hardware Projects [2]

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8016201](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8016201)

[2] [http://www.kickspy.com/browse/all-
failed/hardware](http://www.kickspy.com/browse/all-failed/hardware)

~~~
streametry
And not just that hardware is harder but also the IoT market is estimated at
$19 trillion [1] creating a gold rush of sorts.

But yes, there is no shortage of IoT platforms (xively, dweet, nitrogen,
data.sparkfun, ...) and I'm partly in involved as well. What I found
interesting about the MS program is that recently they were giving away boards
for you to try. So it seems they are in a position to provide the hardware and
the platform.

[1] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-08/cisco-ceo-pegs-
inte...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-08/cisco-ceo-pegs-internet-of-
things-as-19-trillion-market.html)

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sergiotapia
I wanted to try Azure last week (still do!) but I can't register and type in
my US Credit Card because I need a US phone number to validate my account.

Heroku takes my money easily. Paypal takes my money easily. Netflix takes my
money easily. DigitalOcean takes my money easily. Why are you so special
Microsoft?

If there is any MS employee here that can manually create and validate an
account for me I would be forever greatful! I'm working on a MVC SignalR
application for my senior thesis and I would like to host it on Azure instead
of somewhere like Softsys Hosting.

~~~
CarbonX1
Not in the US, but seeing as you are undertaking a thesis, I assume you are a
college or university student?

If you are a student, Microsoft offer undergraduate and postgraduate Azure
grants: [http://azure.microsoft.com/en-
us/community/education/](http://azure.microsoft.com/en-
us/community/education/)

If you are applying with a lecturer, they can request grants or passes for
entire class:
[http://www.microsoftazurepass.com/azureu](http://www.microsoftazurepass.com/azureu)

Not sure how long it will take in each case, but I don't think they require a
credit card (though there are restrictions on what you can do, so check it is
suitable for your thesis first).

Good luck with your thesis!

~~~
sergiotapia
Thanks but I doubt those would work, I cleared all of my courses years ago and
I'm only recently going back to Uni to finally finish my thesis and get my
degree.

~~~
wslh
Can you get a US number from
[http://voice.google.com](http://voice.google.com) and use it?

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cbsmith
I'm still trying to figure out what this service actually does.

