Back at Mobile World Congress 2015, Internet of Things provider Libelium revealed a new Microsoft Azure Cloud integration with its Waspmote wireless sensors to speed time-to-market for smart cities and IoT projects with scalable cloud infrastructure.

This announcement couldn’t come at a better time. According to a recent report from Gartner, 1.1 billion Internet-enabled items will be used by smart cities in 2015 with that number expected to rise to 9.7 billion over the next five years. Beyond that, McKinsey Global Institute forecasts the economic potential of the IoT to value from $2.7 trillion to $6.2 trillion annually by 2025.

Powered by Atmel’s ATmega1281 MCU, Waspmote nodes are designed to be deployed by the thousands, connecting any sensor using any communication protocol to any cloud system. Sensor networks based on these nodes, along with Meshlium Internet gateways, power projects throughout the Industrial Internet, smart agriculture, energy monitoring and environmental control space. Meanwhile, business use Microsoft Azure to…