Cloud and edge computing are coming together as never before, leading to huge opportunities for developers and organizations around the world. Digital twins, mixed reality, and autonomous systems are at the core of a massive wave of innovation from which our customers already benefit.

From the outside, it’s not always apparent how this technology converges or the benefits that can be harnessed by bringing these capabilities together. This is why at Microsoft Build we talk about the possibilities this convergence creates, how customers are already benefitting, and our journey to making this technology easier to use and within reach of every developer and organization.

The possibilities of connected environments

Imagine taking any complex environment and applying the power of technology to create awe-inspiring experiences and reach new business heights that were previously unimaginable. The possibilities are endless: A retail store where the shopping experience is optimized in real-time and shelves are always stocked. A supply chain that tracks and reduces carbon emissions. A process manufacturing line that adjusts for variations in natural ingredients and automatically detects and compensates for operational bottlenecks. A city plan that simulates various growth proposals to ensure they’re making the best use of energy sources.

In 2021, each month there will be a monthly blog covering the webinar of the month for the low-code application development (LCAD) on Azure solution. LCAD on Azure is a solution to demonstrate the robust development capabilities of integrating low-code Microsoft Power Apps and the Azure products you may be familiar with.  

This month’s webinar is “Unlock the Future of Azure IoT through Power Platform.” In this blog, I will briefly recap LCAD on Azure, provide an overview of IoT on Azure and Azure Functions, how to pull an Azure Function into Microsoft Power Automate, and how to integrate your Power Automate flow into Power Apps.

What is LCAD on Azure? 

LCAD on Azure was created to help developers build business applications faster with less code. Utilizing Microsoft Power Platform, and more specifically Power Apps, helps developers scale and extend their Power Apps with Azure services. For example, a pro developer who works for a manufacturing company would need to build a line-of-business (LOB) application to help warehouse employees track incoming inventory. That application would take months to build, test, and deploy. Using Power Apps, it can take only hours to build—saving time and resources. 

However, say the warehouse