SEATTLE—We’ve been hearing a lot about the Internet of Things (IoT) these days, but how can developers connect their code with IoT devices, which often use proprietary, tightly coupled inputs and outputs? There’s no standard way to know which kinds of data a particular device can send. Until now.

Back in the days of Windows 95, Microsoft had a similar problem: connecting the operating system with printers and other hardware peripherals. Ultimately, the company came up with the Plug and Play model, which made printer capabilities clear and certified the devices.

We’re going through a similar phase with IoT devices right now, and once again, Microsoft’s response is to create a plug-and-play solution for IoT, called—unsurprisingly—IoT Plug and Play.

At the center of Microsoft’s IoT initiatives are Azure IoT Central and Azure IoT Hub. Azure IoT Hub, which debuted in 2015, is a Microsoft Azure cloud service that “offers reliable and secure device-to-cloud and cloud-to-device messaging that scales to millions of devices.” Microsoft IoT Central, which debuted in spring 2017, is a dashboard that pulls together data from all of your IoT devices “without requiring cloud solution expertise.” Read more: