Nokia has announced a slew of new features for its Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) private wireless networking platform, including simplified integration with Microsoft Azure IoT modules.

Nokia’s new approach to software installation, described as  ‘click and deploy’, means that Microsoft Azure IoT Edge Modules such as Modbus can now be deployed on the Nokia DAC edge server.

The announcement comes almost a year after Nokia and Microsoft made their first joint solutions public. In November 2019, the two companies announced a strategic collaboration aiming to accelerate transformation and innovation with the help of cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT).

BT was the first global telecommunications service provider to provide its enterprise customers with a managed service integrating Microsoft Azure cloud and Nokia SD-WAN solutions.

According to Stephan Litjens, general manager of Nokia Digital Automation: “Microsoft Azure IoT services enable customers to address interconnected scenarios across multiple industries that include manufacturing, logistics, utilities, smart cities and transportation”.

The Finnish tech giant also announced that it would be extending platform capabilities complementing private wireless connectivity as well as providing new, integrated voice and video in order to facilitate campus-wide communications.

“With the new functionality and added value features introduced today, we further ease and accelerate customers’ transformation path towards Industry 4.0”, said Litjens.

Nokia’s DAC team comms and DAC VoIP will now offer voice and video solutions to provide customers with secure communication, regardless of how many people they are speaking to. The new on-premise applications are delivered over the platform’s scalable edge cloud and are expected to be especially useful for larger, asset-intensive locations such as ports, mines, and factories.

Nokia DAC Applications head Tuuli Ahava said that the new features will “address the questions facing organizations as they begin to implement Industry 4.0 use cases”.

“Data security, backward and forward compatibility, legacy system integration, ecosystem access, and ease-of-use are just some of the concerns that the DAC platform resolves in one optimized solution,” she added.

The announcement follows the launch of Nokia’s 5G SA private wireless network, which is used by Lufthansa Technik, Toyota Production Engineering, and Sandvik.