Microsoft has selected TomTom as the location data provider to power mapping services across all of Microsoft, including Azure, Bing, Cortana, Windows and many other products. As part of the expanded partnership, TomTom has also selected Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud provider.

TomTom providing the freshest map and traffic information in combination with Azure Maps services and SDKs is likely to help perpetuate improved smart city applications.

According to the company, Azure Maps SDKs using TomTom services make it simple to render a host of data sets from diverse sources.

These include real-time parking meter rates, street-specific traffic, addressing carbon footprint, reducing noise pollution and more in a map-based application for visualization of pertinent city information crucial to its citizens.