![Telecommunications equipment in one corner of a small data center. - [Image Credit: Wikimedia Creative Commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/12/6/660x290/b_502x220x82/telecommunications-equipment-in-one-corner-of-a-small-data-center-image-credit-wikimedia-creative-commons_1721897.jpg "Telecommunications equipment in one corner of a small data center. - [Image Credit: Wikimedia Creative Commons]")
Microsoft is making two big moves this week. One targets the cloud computing and data center space, while the other one is about a new Microsoft Azure IoT (Internet of Things) service.
According to AnandTech, the Redmond-based company has become the first global cloud provider to announce a new range of virtual machines that are based on the AMD EPYC platform. The next-generation L-Series Azure virtual machines are expected to offer a huge leap in terms of cloud storage and computing capabilities.
About the new AMD-powered VMs
As mentioned earlier by AnandTech, the Azure Lv2 VMs will be powered by AMD 7551 processors.
It will be available starting at 8 cores to 64 cores, with up to 15TB of local disk resources. The highest-capacity VMs will be supported up to 4TB of memory and will support Microsoft Azure premium storage disks and accelerated networking capabilities, offering the highest throughput of any cloud computing services in the market. For now, the VM types will get the initial offering, with the 4TB offering likely to launch later
AMD is making a huge claim about their data center-focused platform. The AMD EPYC 7551 processor, which features a base frequency of 2.2 GHz and a single core turbo of 3.0 GHz, will allow around 33 percent more connectivity than any other 2-socket solution currently available in the market.
AMD’s Scott Aylor, VP for AMD Enterprise Solutions, also made some good statement about the new cloud features. Aylor said that his company is extremely excited about this new partnership with Microsoft Azure and that his company is expecting more development throughout 2018.
Microsoft to get big on IoT space
The software giant is getting a huge play in the fast-growing IoT space.
This week, the company made a huge announcement, a new IoT software-as-a-service (SaaS) called Microsoft IoT Central.
According to ZDNet, the newly announced SaaS service will allow physical devices to connect to back-end services, which include customer engagement, productivity services, asset utilization, field service, predictive maintenance, and energy management.
Additionally, the new IoT service will also allow users and organization to gain insight into devices via the service’s analytics services.
The new Microsoft IoT Central will not only connect Microsoft services such as Office 365 and Dynamics 365. It will also connect to third-party services from Salesforce, SAP, and other tech vendors.
The software giant first mentioned its plans for Microsoft IoT Central in April of this year. It plans to launch the final version sometime in 2018.
As for the availability and pricing, the company plans to make the new IoT service available as a free 30-day trial, which includes support for up to 10 devices and 100 MB of data traffic. After that free 30-day trial, the service will start charging 50 cents per device, per month.
In addition to the new IoT service, the software firm also announced that its Azure IoT Hub device provisioning service has finally entered general availability this week.
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