Ecolab partners up with Microsoft to use technology in tackling water shortages

Ecolab has teamed up with Microsoft to utilize the latter's technological platform to apply cutting-edge software in aiding industries tackle water scarcity. In a world where we're experiencing an increase in demand for water that threatens shortages and droughts, it's more important than ever to tackle waste and excessive consumption of the valuable and finite resource.

Christophe Beck, president of Nalco Water, an Ecolab company, commented on the new partnership:

"Our goal of helping customers reduce water usage requires that we capture real-time information from processes anywhere around the world. We need to be able to control those processes remotely, and deliver the intelligence that enables our service personnel in the field to manage those processes."

Companies will be assisted in tackling water usage, notably businesses in energy, agriculture, food, manufacturing and hospitality. The aim is to have these companies achieve net-zero water usage. Nalco Water is working on ways to effectively monitor and control industrial processes and ensure everything is fully automated when issues arise.

"Nalco Water's 3D TRASAR Technology, which provides real-time sensing and dosing of streams for cooling towers and other water-intensive processes, will deliver in-plant measurement and control. Thousands of sensors in thousands of facilities around the world makes up data from in-plant monitoring equipment, and that will be transferred in real-time to a secure cloud storage platform built on Microsoft Azure and Azure IoT Suite."

By the end of 2016, the collaboration between Microsoft and Ecolabs will see a suite of comprehensive solutions that will wield together monitoring and control for companies, allowing those who need to make the decisions see data and those who need to carry out necessary work have all required access and background info.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.