Azure IoT Services: A Comprehensive Overview
Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform which provides a suite of services related to the Internet of Things (IoT). Azure provides three services to help manage the connected devices, data, and applications: IoT Hub, IoT Central, and Azure Sphere. This article will provide an overview of each service and discuss when to use which service.
IoT Hub
Azure’s IoT Hub is a cloud service that acts as a router between the device and the application managing it. It ensures secure communication between the device and the cloud, as well as from the cloud to the device. After the IoT Hub receives messages from a device, it can relay those messages to other Azure services, like Cognitive Services for AI analysis. It also allows for command and control, meaning users have complete control over the connected devices.
IoT Hub offers extended control and regularization, but is not the best fit for situations where security is paramount. Security is important in services securing confidential data, such as credit card data, more so than in services securing on-the-record, unclassified data, such as washing machine rinse-cycle data. The security offered by Azure IoT Hub is substantial for cases involving device-to-cloud telemetry, request-reply methods, functionality/application integration, and file uploads.
IoT Central
Azure IoT Central is an abstraction over the IoT Hub. It has a fully functional dashboard that enables users to exercise control over the IoT devices. It also has an interactive user interface for monitoring device specifics. Users can monitor individual or collective performances and can trigger alerting workflows in case the network incurs an error.
IoT Central is unique in that it offers customizable device templates for a broad range of scenarios from retail to healthcare. This allows users to create dashboards and alerts according to their needs. It also permits users to connect or add new devices without server-side coding.
A good example of IoT Central deployment would be fleet vehicles shipping perishable goods. The shipment coordinators could use IoT Central’s Connected Logistics device template to monitor commodity temperatures, pressure dips, and real-time locations inside individual vehicles.
Azure Sphere
Azure Sphere is Azure IoT’s high-end service suite that offers optimum data confidentiality and security. It consists of three components: hardware, operating system, and the Azure Sphere Security Service (AS3). The hardware unit is a microcontroller (MPU) that processes the incoming sensor signals and the operating system. The operating system is based on Linux and handles communication with the security features and executes the 3rd-party software suite. AS3 ensures certificate-verified and authenticated access to the device’s configuration and pushes approved customer-developed software updates to the device.
Azure Sphere is a costly service and should only be deployed when a state-of-the-art, confidential device network requires it. An example of this could be a touchless self-checkout solution for COVID-19, as transaction details are confidential and liable to compromise.