Microsoft Corp. today introduced new capabilities for its Azure public cloud computing service that target two increasingly important markets: the “internet of things” and China.

The first update the company announced is the release of Azure IoT Edge into general availability. The service, which provides tools that enable organizations to analyze data from their sensors and other connected devices, has been significantly expanded since Microsoft first previewed it last year.

IoT Edge now integrates with Moby Project, the open-source version of the Docker software container platform. Software containers enable developers to build portable applications that work on different kinds of hardware and can easily move between environments. In this particular case, Microsoft said, the Moby support will facilitate the development of services that run just as well in Azure as on a connected device at a remote location such a factory.

The new version of IoT Edge also promises to simplify the deployment of the devices themselves. To achieve this, Microsoft has added integrations with a number of the other hardware management tools in Azure. Companies can use the tools to automatically connect a new endpoint to their networks and then download the necessary software modules.

“Azure IoT Edge now has deep integration with [Azure] Device Provisioning Service for zero-touch provisioning so that a device can simply be provisioned in the field with no operator intervention,” Sam George, a director with the Azure Internet of Things team, detailed in a blog post. “With Device Provisioning Service, customers can securely provision tens of thousands of devices – bringing true scale to edge deployments.”

Alongside the new IoT capabilities, Microsoft announced an expansion of its cloud presence in China. The company has launched two additional Azure regions that will be operated by a local partner called 21Vianet. Other providers such as Amazon Web Services Inc. also rely on Chinese firms to operate their local infrastructure in order to comply with the nation’s technology regulations.

Microsoft’s two new regions are based in Beijing and Shanghai. They bring the total number of data center clusters that the company operates in China to four.

Image: Microsoft