Mesh Systems was featured in a Microsoft blog written by a Corporate Vice President
by Gavriella Schuster on 18 April 2017
Over the last few months, I have seen some shining partner examples of how new technologies are revolutionizing various industry verticals including healthcare, retail, and finance. It is truly inspiring to see how partners are driving success in such a fast-paced market.
Beyond business success, our partners are making a powerful impact on the lives of our customers with transformative technologies such as IoT, AI, and cloud computing. The manufacturing industry is a particularly interesting case study of how digital transformation is occurring each and every day.
Embracing Industry 4.0
There are so many changes taking place in manufacturing that experts have coined a new name for this period of disruption, Industry 4.0. The collective term embraces the fourth industrial revolution and recognizes the contemporary automation, data, and cloud-based technologies that are changing what it means to do business in this vertical.
Smart manufacturing, IoT, digital supply chains and other innovations are helping businesses maximize outcomes through greater productivity and efficiency. IDC predicts that by the end of 2017, the manufacturing sector will see revenue growth from information-based products double that of the rest of the product or service portfolio for a third of Forbes’ Global2000 companies.
Here are just a few examples of Microsoft partners leveraging this amazing opportunity.
Mesh Systems
Another interesting story is that of Mesh Systems. They are doing some very interesting work using the cloud to help harness energy from renewable energy sources. When presented with the complex problem of balancing power grids, they have turned humble water heaters into a giant, community battery which aggregates storage capacity.
Richard Baxter, co-founder and CEO of Mesh Systems says that the application is a game changer because this is a solution he feels can make a real difference in the world.
Renewable energy sources such as wind farms and solar panels are notoriously unpredictable. That’s why so many communities rely on base-load electricity (often from a non-renewable energy source such as coal). In collaboration with Steffes Corporation, Mesh Systems have designed Grid-Interactive Electric Thermal Storage water heaters that allow utilities to spread excess energy leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure. The solution uses predictive analytics to distribute energy to existing space and water heaters within tens of thousands of units giving the grid the ability to store, capture, and use energy even when it’s produced before it’s needed. Azure allows the solution to match supply and demand and enables the utility to spread the storage as much as is needed.