Enabling Microsoft Azure Developers With New Serverless Location-Based Functions

At HERE we empower developers to build great things using our data and services. Earlier this week, we announced on our Developer Blog the availability of our core Location Platform Services via one of the brightest developer ecosystems, Microsoft Azure. By opening up our core location platform services including the largest POI database on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace as serverless functions, we want the Azure developers to explore new capabilities and fully tap into the power of location technology.

HERE Maps & Location Services allows developers to fast-track the development of location-centric applications, by leveraging HERE’s global map data and curated location content in combination with the readily available location services including rendering, search, routing, transit and positioning.

The set of location-based APIs and services is available on Azure, available across more than 193 countries, and includes:

• Geocoding – High-precision mapping of geo-coordinates and addresses
• Positioning – Device tracking and positioning for indoors and outdoors, online or offline
• Fleet Telematics – Advanced algorithms for optimal truck routing and planning with a deep set of data including truck attributes (maximum height and weight clearance), toll costs, and environmental zones
• Routing – Precise instructions to a destination using various transport modes (car, truck, public transit, bicycle) and leveraging matrix and isoline algorithms
• Places – Extensive set of Points of Interest with rich attribution for 400+ categories providing real world context and relevance for a variety of use cases
• Map Tiles – Pre-rendered map tiles with different display types, such as regular map, satellite imagery and terrain
• Map Image – Pre-rendered map images already optimized for both desktop & mobile devices

With HERE Maps & Location Services, Azure developers have access to a deeper set of location-based data and algorithms as well as the flexibility to incorporate data that is unique to their organizations. This gives developers a unique opportunity to build highly contextual and engaging experiences in the areas of IoT device management, field workforce management, transportation and mobility, emergency services, infrastructure management, urban planning, fleet management, (real-time) tracking of assets, location search, and many more.

Jeff Sandquist, General Manager, Cloud + AI Developer Relations at Microsoft said, “We look forward to seeing how our developer community leverages the power of location intelligence to enrich their enterprise and IoT apps with these robust HERE Location Service APIs.”

These serverless functions are available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace and functions library in three Azure Resource Manager (ARM) solution templates:

• HERE Maps & Location Services serverless functions - This ARM template deploys HERE serverless functions to be invoked as part of Azure applications
• HERE Maps & Location Services for WebApp backends - This template deploys the HERE serverless functions and Azure Services like Service Bus and Cosmos DB necessary to utilize the functions in a Web Application backend
• HERE Maps & Location Services for Data Streams - This template deploys the HERE serverless functions and Azure services like Event Hub and Cosmos DB necessary to utilize the functions in a real time streaming application

If you or your organization build on Azure, you can get started for free with 250,000 location transactions with complete details in the links above. We can't wait to see what you build!