Microsoft opened a socially distanced area ‘The Microsoft Hub’ as the 40th GITEX Technology Week. Alongside the latest Microsoft’s Surface portfolio and select partner innovations, the area will also showcase agricultural solution Azure FarmBeats, which uses AI and IOT technologies to support sustainable farming practices and contribute to food security, in line with Microsoft’s global ‘AI for Good’ initiative.
The Microsoft Hub offers an opportunity to experience technological innovations, initiatives, and products, which shape the future for business at a time when years of technological advancement have been achieved in a matter of months. Partners joining in this area include Itqan, Intertec, Poly, Netways, Liferay, Forteinet and HCL.
A central Microsoft showcase at GITEX is AI solution Azure FarmBeats, which enables data-driven farming to maximise agricultural output. With data visualisation, machine learning and data analytics, automated recommendations are provided enabling growers to calibrate water usage and soil quality, for more sustainable farming under challenging conditions. This has valuable applications as the coronavirus pandemic has seen the UAE and Gulf economies increasingly prioritise food security and lay the foundations for long-term strategies to reimagine food systems.
One of the key highlights of Microsoft’s cloud journey has been to accelerate the digital transformation capabilities of businesses across the region. Microsoft UAE datacentres are empowering job creation, entrepreneurship and economic growth across the Middle East. These datacentres are contributing towards innovation, by providing organisations, enterprises and developers with access to scalable, highly available and resilient cloud services, while maintaining data residency, security and compliance needs.
