TLEX Interchange on Azure Marketplace: Cloud-Native C-ITS Data Exchange

Monotch has made its TLEX® Interchange available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, opening a fast path for public authorities, integrators, and infrastructure owners to deploy a standards-aligned, cloud-native data exchange engine for connected mobility and C-ITS projects without building bespoke middleware from scratch. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

Background​

Monotch is a European specialist in real-time mobility data exchange whose TLEX (Traffic Live Exchange) platform underpins major C-ITS and smart-city programs such as Mobilidata in Flanders and the NordicWay initiatives. The company positions TLEX Interchange as a focused, cloud-deployable engine for low-latency, standards-based data flows between traffic infrastructure, vehicles, and service providers. (monotch.com)
The arrival of TLEX Interchange in the Azure Marketplace means customers can provision the software directly into their own Azure tenant through a packaged offer, benefiting from Azure’s global footprint, identity and access management, and scaling primitives while retaining control over their subscription and billing. Microsoft’s marketplace model also simplifies procurement and deployment for public agencies that already run workloads in Azure. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

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What TLEX Interchange claims to deliver​

TLEX Interchange is marketed as a ready-made data exchange engine designed for modern mobility ecosystems. Key advertised capabilities include:

• Rapid deployment via marketplace packaging and a wizard-driven installation flow for deployment into an organization’s own Azure tenant. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Standards alignment, including C‑ROADS/C‑ITS compatibility and use of AMQP messaging for backend exchange and interoperability. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Low-latency, real-time streaming suitable for use cases such as Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA), signal phase and timing (SPAT)/MAP services, DENMs and other C‑ITS messages. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Scalability and elasticity leveraging Azure infrastructure to scale from pilots to production and back again. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Portability so the engine can migrate to private cloud or on‑premises environments if required, with accounts and settings transferable between deployments. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

These features reflect a shift in approach: instead of bespoke, multi-month middleware projects to translate between systems and messaging formats, agencies can spin up an off-the-shelf exchange node and focus on use-case delivery and governance.

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Technical overview and standards alignment​

Messaging backbone: AMQP and cloud-native architecture​

TLEX Interchange is described as using AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol) as a messaging backbone. AMQP is a well-established, binary application-layer protocol designed for reliable, interoperable message exchange and is commonly used in enterprise messaging and cloud scenarios. Official assessments and public interoperability guidance treat AMQP as suitable for secure, robust message delivery with support for guaranteed delivery semantics, TLS and authentication mechanisms. (interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu)
Using AMQP allows TLEX to support a range of communication patterns—publish/subscribe, point-to-point, and filtered topic distribution—required by different mobility stakeholders (traffic controllers, in-vehicle apps, enforcement systems, third-party service providers). The protocol choice also aligns with the C‑Roads initiative’s hybrid approach to backend, IP-based interchange between C‑ITS nodes. (c-roads.eu)

Standards and C‑ITS alignment​

C‑Roads provides harmonised C‑ITS specifications and an IP-based backend interface profile designed to enable interoperable, cross-border exchange of C‑ITS messages. Monotch presents TLEX as compatible with those C‑Roads principles and message profiles, positioning Interchange as a backend node able to handle the kinds of IP-based message exchange the C‑Roads architecture expects. While frontend radio technologies (ITS‑G5 vs cellular) are part of the wider stack, TLEX targets the cloud/back‑end side of the architecture where AMQP and other IP-based interfaces are used. (c-roads.eu)

Integration points and connectors​

The Azure Marketplace packaging promises ready-made connectors and templates to accelerate integration with roadside controllers, traffic management systems, fleet telematics, and neutral data consumers. These pre-built connectors reduce the need for custom adapters and shorten the path from sensor to service. Monotch’s public materials and the marketplace blurb specifically highlight templates and a dashboard-driven management console for participant governance. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

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Real-world deployments and endorsements​

TLEX has seen adoption in high-profile European programs:

• Mobilidata (Flanders) — Monotch’s TLEX has been used as the data exchange layer for Mobilidata, a large EU-backed initiative to harmonise traffic, signal controllers and third-party apps across Flanders. The program explicitly lists Monotch and its TLEX Interchange as components used for bidirectional exchange and intelligent traffic-light coordination. (monotch.com)
• NordicWay — Monotch participated in the NordicWay project portfolio, using TLEX as part of the data-sharing node for NordicWay 3 and related exchanges across Nordic countries. These initiatives emphasise cross‑border interoperability and C‑ITS testbeds, and Monotch’s role has been publicised as a provider of the node and interchange services. (monotch.com)

Independent press coverage from trade outlets confirms Monotch presenting TLEX Interchange and Azure deployment options at industry events, reinforcing commercial availability and operational capability claims. (itsinternational.com)

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The Azure Marketplace angle — what it means in practice​

Deploying via Azure Marketplace is more than just a procurement convenience; it changes the operational and compliance calculus for agencies.

• Deploys into the agency’s own Azure tenant: customers retain control of tenant identity, access controls and billing while consuming Monotch software as a managed package. This pattern supports organizational governance and aligns with typical public-sector cloud procurement. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Simplifies procurement and billing: Azure Marketplace transacts through established enterprise agreements and often counts toward consumption commitments, easing budgetary alignment and Azure-centric purchasing workflows. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Leverages Azure security and scale: customers can use Azure-native services for identity (Azure AD), networking, monitoring and compliance to secure the exchange node and scale capacity based on demand. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Reduces initial engineering time: pre-configured deployment templates, wizards, and integration templates are intended to shrink the time-to-first-message—turning what many integrators describe as months of middleware work into a matter of days or weeks for a pilot. This claim is consistent with marketplace positioning but should be validated in a customer’s own integration tests. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

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Use cases and operational benefits​

TLEX Interchange is aimed at a broad set of C-ITS and smart-mobility use cases. Examples include:

• Real-time traffic signal phase and timing (SPAT/MAP) distribution to vehicles and apps for GLOSA and safer intersection approaches. (monotch.com)
• Incident and hazard notifications (DENM) to vehicles, route planners and operations centers. (monotch.com)
• Aggregation and redispatch of roadside sensor feeds to traffic management centers and third-party analytics platforms. (monotch.com)
• Priority and pre-emption messages for emergency services and transit vehicles. (monotch.com)

Operational benefits include faster time-to-deploy for pilots, centralized governance of participants and topics, and the ability to scale capacity up for peak events (sports, evacuations) and back down for cost efficiency. Azure’s global footprint also helps when projects span administrative boundaries or seek rapid, geographically distributed deployments. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

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Security, data governance and privacy considerations​

Deploying a mobility exchange engine brings significant responsibility over data protection, provenance and trust:

• Identity and PKI: C‑ITS deployments typically require a trust architecture (PKI) for authenticated message exchange. Any cloud-hosted exchange must integrate with the relevant PKI tooling and certificate lifecycle management to meet ETSI/C‑ITS security profiles. Customers should confirm how TLEX Interchange handles certificate issuance, rotation, and revocation for both infrastructure and application-level participants. (etsi.org)
• Tenant isolation and access control: Because the marketplace deployment runs in a customer’s own Azure tenant, agencies can apply their own Azure AD policies, conditional access rules, network security groups and private link or VNet integration to isolate traffic and limit surface area. Validate recommended architectures and hardened deployment templates before production rollout. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Data residency and sovereignty: Public bodies should confirm the geographic location of message storage, logs and backups. Azure regions and data residency controls can address many concerns, but agencies must validate that retention, routing and backup locations meet legal and policy requirements, especially for cross-border exchanges. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Operational monitoring and SLA: While Azure provides infrastructure SLAs, customers need clarity on Monotch’s responsibilities for software-level availability, bug fixes, and operational support in marketplace offers. Ensure support terms and incident response obligations are contractualized. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

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Risks, limitations and areas requiring due diligence​

No off-the-shelf solution removes all risk. Key points to check before procurement:

• Marketing vs reality — Claims such as “no months of engineering work” and “affordable monthly pricing” are useful sales propositions but must be validated with a proof-of-concept and a total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) analysis including Azure consumption, Monotch licensing, and integration work. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Standards maturity and interoperability — Alignment with C‑Roads and AMQP is a strong starting point, but actual cross-vendor interoperability depends on message profiles, semantics and field-level conformance. Agencies should plan interoperability tests with vehicle OEMs, RSU vendors and adjacent platforms. (c-roads.eu)
• Data governance complexity — Exchanging real-time traffic data with multiple stakeholders requires robust governance: who may subscribe to what topics, how anonymous or aggregated data must be, and how audit trails are maintained. Marketplace deployment simplifies hosting but does not remove governance design effort. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Vendor and cloud dependencies — While marketplace deployment in a customer tenant reduces some lock-in, the operational model still introduces dependencies on Monotch for software updates and on the cloud provider for infrastructure. Evaluate exit options, migration paths and the feasibility of running equivalent Interchange instances on private cloud or on-premises if policy changes require it. Monotch advertises portability; customers should validate this by test migration. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Security operational readiness — PKI, certificate distribution, incident management and secure onboarding of third parties are non-trivial. Ensure the deployment package includes hardened templates and that the supplier provides clear operational playbooks. (c-roads.eu)

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Procurement and implementation checklist​

Public agencies and integrators should include the following in RFPs or pilot plans when evaluating TLEX Interchange or similar marketplace-packaged C‑ITS nodes:

• Request a detailed architecture diagram that maps TLEX components to Azure services, networking options, identity boundaries and storage locations. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Require a PKI and security integration plan, showing how certificates, authentication and message integrity are implemented and audited. (c-roads.eu)
• Demand interoperability test cases and results with at least two independent vendors (RSUs, traffic controllers, or in-vehicle systems). (monotch.com)
• Insist on SLA and support commitments for software-level issues and for help during incident response. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Include exit and migration criteria demonstrating portability to private cloud or on-premises deployments, with tools for exporting accounts and settings. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

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Verification, cross-references and fact-checking summary​

To ensure accuracy, the most significant factual claims in Monotch’s announcement and marketplace listing were cross-checked against independent sources:

• Marketplace availability and the packaging for Azure were confirmed on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace listing for TLEX Interchange and Microsoft’s Marketplace overview. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Use in Mobilidata and NordicWay projects was corroborated by Monotch project pages and program announcements detailing TLEX deployments in those initiatives. (monotch.com)
• The claim that the engine is built on AMQP and aligned with C‑Roads backend profiles aligns with Monotch’s technical descriptions and the C‑Roads published specifications for an IP-based backend interchange; AMQP is a recognized, standards-assessed message protocol appropriate for the described use. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• Press and trade coverage noting Monotch’s Azure deployment and the platform’s positioning for rapid pilot-to-production workflows were found in ITS trade reporting and Microsoft partner communications. (itsinternational.com)

Cautionary note: specific pricing details, exact wizard steps, and migration tooling claims require hands-on validation in a customer’s Azure environment. Those operational specifics are not fully disclosed in public marketing materials and should be tested in a pilot procurement. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)

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Strategic implications for transport authorities and integrators​

The Azure Marketplace availability of TLEX Interchange lowers the barrier to entry for digital mobility pilots and could accelerate adoption of C‑ITS use cases by shifting effort away from building messaging fabrics and toward implementing policies, integrations, and applications that consume the data.

• For city and regional transport authorities, this reduces time-to-first-pilot and enables tighter control of Azure tenancy and policy while outsourcing middleware complexity. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
• For system integrators, marketplace packaging simplifies repeatable deployments across clients and opens new commercial models around configuration, onboarding, and managed services. (monotch.com)
• For vendors of roadside units and traffic controllers, a standards-aligned cloud exchange reduces the effort to certify against multiple backends and can make vendor devices more broadly interoperable within an ecosystem. (c-roads.eu)

However, moving quickly should not shorthand governance: data sharing agreements, privacy impact assessments, and operational playbooks remain essential to avoid unintended exposure or misuse of mobility data.

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Conclusion​

TLEX Interchange on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace is a pragmatic next step in the maturation of cloud-hosted, standards-aware C‑ITS backend infrastructure. By packaging Monotch’s TLEX exchange engine for Azure tenants, the offering promises faster pilot turn-up, scalable operations, and standards-aligned interoperability that aligns with C‑Roads IP-based backend expectations and AMQP-based messaging patterns. (azuremarketplace.microsoft.com)
The technical foundations and real-world project pedigree (Mobilidata, NordicWay) make the product credible for municipalities and integrators seeking to accelerate connected-mobility projects. At the same time, agencies must validate pricing, SLA terms, security integrations (notably PKI and certificate management), and interoperability with local controller vendors and OEMs through concrete tests and contractual protections. With careful procurement and an emphasis on governance, TLEX Interchange represents a practical option to move from pilots to production-ready C‑ITS services more quickly than building middleware from scratch. (monotch.com)

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Source: Highways News Monotch launches TLEX® Interchange on Microsoft Azure