Case Study: Walkway gets people moving and scales sponsored treadmill workstations with Microsoft Azure

Cloud-powered active lifestyle solution gets people moving

Walkway, founded in Minneapolis by Kari Severson, puts sponsored treadmill desks in public, traditionally sedentary spaces (airports, hospitals, campuses) to encourage movement. The company faced typical microbusiness constraints—limited IT resources, the need to manage liability and sponsor funding, and to remotely control hardware and collect usage data without running its own infrastructure.

Walkway built a Windows 8.1 kiosk app and hardware interface (with LifeSpan Fitness treadmills) that only powers the desk after a waiver and sponsor ad, and uses Microsoft Azure services (Mobile Services, Storage, SQL Database, Websites) to host content, track analytics, and manage deployments. The solution enabled installations in locations including a startup hub and the Minneapolis–Saint Paul airport, delivered sponsor-ready usage data, sped time to market, and created a scalable, low‑maintenance platform for future expansion.

Walkway

David Smith

Lead Developer