Comtrol Corporation, a manufacturer of industrial device connectivity products, announced at Hannover Messe (Apr. 23-27) that it has implemented Microsoft Azure’s IoT Gateway SDK on all of Comtrol’s IO-Link Master products.

Comtrol’s MultiLink technology allows IO-Link sensor data (status, events, and process data) to integrate directly with the Azure IoT Hub while simultaneously communicating with the sensor data to the PLC controller. Comtrol’s IO-Link Masters - with IoT Gateway functionality - communicate with sensors and send information to the Azure IoT Hub, which in turn can make it available to Azure Stream Analytics and other cloud-based applications.

“We are excited to support customers’ need to share IO-Link sensor information with enterprise cloud systems. Comtrol created a direct link between Comtrol’s IO-Link Master and Microsoft Azure. This will support popular SCADA systems, such as Wonderware, G.E. Predix and others running on the Azure cloud platform. IO-Link and Azure complete the goals of Industry 4.0 and IIoT,” said Bradford Beale, president of Comtrol Corporation.

Jerry Lee, director, cloud platform marketing, at Microsoft Corp. added, “Microsoft is pleased to enable IO-Link sensor data into Microsoft Azure IoT, providing sensor connectivity directly into the Azure cloud platform, allowing customers to monitor their factories around the world.”