Verizon Business customers can now call upon both of the leading cloud providers for IoT application development and services. The mobile network operator’s ThingSpace IoT platform is now integrated with Microsoft Azure IoT Central, following a previous and similar deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The combination of Verizon and Microsoft’s IoT platform will allow IoT system builders, integrators, and service providers to develop, deploy, and manage entire fleets of IoT services.

Verizon has been busy on the IoT front of late, following last week’s agreement with IBM to begin selling IoT services to enterprises for asset tracking, analytics services, and the Watson artificial intelligence (AI) platform. The operator also this month tapped Google Cloud to pilot AI-driven services for customer service, but hasn’t yet committed to release the service commercially.

Prospects in the IoT market, while growing, remain dubious. With the arrival of 5G, operators are determined to bring IoT out of the shadows, but cost, security, monitoring, and proprietary technologies pose ongoing challenges. Microsoft last month acquired IoT security startup CyberX as part of its pledge to invest $5 billion in IoT by 2022.

Microsoft also recently previewed Azure Edge Zones, which are designed to embed compute, storage, and networking resources at the edge of carrier’s 5G networks. While the addition of Microsoft Azure IoT Central is likely a positive development for enterprises that use Verizon’s network, Microsoft’s deal with Verizon is still significantly narrower than its partnership with AWS, which marries Verizon’s 5G network with the No. 1 cloud hyperscaler’s Wavelength edge compute service to create Verizon Edge. 

“By integrating the Verizon and Microsoft platforms we are enabling IoT builders to more easily get their solutions to market, and ultimately, into the hands of users. It’s about moving the IoT industry forward and making it easier for businesses and consumers to benefit from IoT innovation,” Aamir Hussain, SVP of business products at Verizon Business, said in a statement.

IoT delivered by 5G is poised to drive $8 billion in revenue for operators by 2024, a dramatic increase from the $525 million it’s projected to contribute to operator revenue this year, according to a study released by Juniper Research in February.

However, the COVID-19 crisis is stunting the repeatedly delayed insurgence of IoT, ABI Research analysts said one month after much of the U.S. was placed under stay-at-home orders. Tightened spending across almost every industry and market will impact IoT for much of 2020, the analysts warned under the caveat that the pandemic would ease during the summer. 

That seemingly reasonable and hopeful outlook at the time has not materialized. The pandemic is still spreading, and in some cases accelerating, across many countries. 

More than 15 million cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed around the world, claiming the lives of nearly 620,000 people to date, according to a tally managed by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. More than 26% of those confirmed cases and 23% of the resulting deaths are in the U.S.