Azure Sphere, a Secure IoT Platform, Reaches General Availability

In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced the general availability (GA) of Azure Sphere, an end-to-end IoT Security Platform. The Azure Sphere platform focuses on three key areas including microcontroller units (MCUs), a secure operating system (OS), which is based upon Linux, and providing cloud security services including software updates and detecting emerging threats. Azure Sphere originated out of Microsoft Research, under the name of Project Sopris back in March 2017. Therefore, reaching GA is an important milestone for Microsoft customers. Halina McMaster, principal group program manager at Microsoft, explains. At the core of Azure Sphere is secured MCUs that have been built with security and connectivity in-mind. To achieve building this ecosystem, Microsoft has established a certification program that manufacturers participate in to have their chips included in the platform. This includes the MediaTek 3620 chip that has built-in WiFi and an Arm Cortex-A7 processor.