Microsoft announced the acquisition of Solair, an Italian cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) company, for an undisclosed fee.

Solair, founded in 2011, specialises in delivering IoT services to customers across a number of industries, including manufacturing, retail, food and beverage and transportation, with the aim to help businesses run more efficiently through its cloud-based data and analytics.

The company also has a focus on home automation, smart metering, remote maintenance and inventory management.

Microsoft said in a blog post it will integrate Solair’s technology into its Azure IoT suite of services, which is already used by the Italian company, while outlining aims to use the acquisition to support its strategy “to deliver the most complete IoT offering for enterprises”.

“Solair shares our ambition for helping customers harness their untapped data and create new intelligence for IoT,” said Sam George, partner director, Azure IoT.

Microsoft said it would provide further specifics on how it will use Solair’s technology in the future.

Earlier this year, Cisco also moved to beef up its IoT offering by announcing the acquisition of Jasper, another cloud-based IoT platform, for $1.4 billion.