MS Azure IoT — Introduction

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IoT i.e. Internet of Things is not a new word (not any more). This is being discussed for a while now. It has really picked up in last 4–5 years with all required support becoming available.

Wikipedia describes IoT as “The Internet of things (IoT) describes the network of physical objects, so known as, ‘things’ — that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies that is used for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the Internet.”

So basically these are smart devices/ sensors which can communicate with each other. Communication can be uni or bi directional. Ability of the devices able to communicate with each other has opened a new world of possibilities. Connected cars, smart homes, surveillance cameras/ drones, smart refrigerators, coffee machines, ANPR are just few of the examples.

Data being generated from devices can be used in real time analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Microsoft does offer a complete suite of tools/ technologies for implementing a enterprise level IoT application. MS IoT suite contains following technologies to help with implementation :

1. API Management (APIM)
   Helps APIs with security, versioning and scalability.
2. Azure Cosmos Db
   NoSQL database with Open APIs.
3. Azure Defender for IoT
   Defender for devices.
4. Azure Digital Twins
   A digital representation of devices and modules.
5. Azure Functions
   Events processing at scale (server-less).
6. Azure IoT Central
   Offers an UI for easy management.
7. Azure IoT Edge
   Makes functionality available at compatible devices.
8. Azure IoT Hub
   Managed message hub for bi-direction communication between application and devices.
9. Azure IoT solution accelerators
   Simplifies creation of IoT applications with pre-built templates.
10. Azure Machine Learning
    A cloud service for managing ML projects.
11. Azure Maps
    A collection of geospatial services and SDKs for mapping data to geographical context.
12. Azure Percept
    Full stack offerings from silicon to services for solving integration challenges with edge AI.
13. Azure RTOS
    Real time OS for IoT.
14. Azure Sphere
    A secure, high level platform for internet connected devices.
15. Azure SQL Edge
    Optimised RDBMS for IoT and IoT edge deployments.
16. Azure Stream Analytics
    Real time analytics for live data streams.
17. Azure Time Series Insights
    UI to explore and analyse time series data from IoT devices.
18. Event Grid
    Service for handling event delivery at scale.
19. Kinect SDK
    SDK with advanced AI sensors for building sophisticated computer vision and speech models.
20. Logic Apps
    A no code, server-less workflow system.
21. Notification Hubs
    Service for sending push notification to any system.
22. Windows 10 IoT Core Devices
    Optimised Windows 10 OS and support for smaller devices.

This list keeps growing everyday. Keep an eye at Azure documentation | Microsoft Docs. MS does a very good job and keep these updated. While nothing stops someone from using each of these technologies in a IoT implementations but most likely you won’t use all in one implementation.

An architecture of a typical application would look like:

Azure IoT reference architecture

References : Azure IoT reference architecture — Azure Reference Architectures | Microsoft Docs