IoT cloud platforms are cloud-based middleware software and considered as the ‘plumbing’ of IoT solutions. They deliver IoT and cloud computing capabilities as a service over an end-to-end platform. IoT cloud platforms provide ready-to-use software components which can be customized to suit your IoT cloud solution with minimal effort.
Microsoft describes Azure® IoT Hub as “a managed service, hosted in the cloud, that acts as a central message hub for bi-directional communication between your IoT application and the devices it manages”. They claim that Azure IoT Hub can be used to build IoT solutions and connect virtually any device with reliable and secure communications between millions of IoT devices and a cloud-hosted solution backend.
Azure IoT Hub provides several cloud services and SDKs to build end-to-end IoT solutions catering to various real-life situations. These services and SDKs empower you to enable IoT for devices, capture device telemetry data on cloud, run near real-time analytics, trigger alerts, and integrate with external applications, store data and run real time anomaly detection or predictions based on machine learning models. Azure IoT Hub cloud platform is metered on the number of operations between the cloud and devices or applications.
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Connect with us today to rapidly and efficiently build your Azure IoT Hub cloud solution.
Read our white paper on Developing IoT Solutions with Azure IoT Hub Platform, to learn more about the different building blocks and reference architecture of a typical IoT platform and how the Azure IoT Hub platform realizes them through its managed services.
Thinxtream has extensive expertise in developing IoT cloud solutions for your Connected Products and Smart Services using the Azure IoT Hub cloud platform.
Thinxtream has had a long partnership with Microsoft, and has extensive knowledge in building IoT products and IoT solutions for your Connected Products and Smart Services using their IoT platform, Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Edge, and other Azure services. With our deep understanding of the Azure IoT backbone and by leveraging Azure IoT Suite, Thinxtream is able to architect and quickly deliver value-added IoT products and IoT solutions to fulfill your dynamic business and market requirements.
We have built strong expertise in following core services from Azure IoT Hub.
A Computer Peripherals OEM leveraged Thinxtream’s IoT Services and our advanced expertise in Azure IoT Hub to develop a Field Support solution. Our solution used the Azure® IoT platform and device twins, associated Azure cloud services such as Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Service Bus, Azure App Service Web Apps and Web Jobs and Azure AD, and associated Azure cloud data services such as Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Storage services. Read the Case Study.
Azure IoT Hub is Microsoft’s managed cloud service that acts as a central message hub for bi-directional communication between an IoT application and the devices it manages, connecting millions of devices to a cloud-hosted solution backend with reliable, secure communication.
Thinxtream has had a long-standing partnership with Microsoft and extensive consulting and development experience building IoT products on Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Edge, Device Twins, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Service Bus, and Azure Machine Learning-based edge inferencing.
Thinxtream’s Azure IoT Hub expertise includes messaging and declarative message routing, Device Twins for state synchronization, X.509 certificate-based security, zero-touch device provisioning, Azure Maps geospatial features, and Azure IoT Edge for on-device analytics.
A typical Azure IoT Hub architecture combines messaging and declarative message routing (sending device-to-cloud data to services like Azure Stream Analytics or Azure Functions), Device Twins as a queryable store for device metadata and state, the IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service for zero-touch onboarding, and Azure IoT Edge for on-device analytics and business logic.
Azure IoT Hub secures communications using X.509 certificates with per-device access control, and manages device identity through the Azure IoT Hub Identity Registry.
Yes. Azure IoT Central provides industry-specific application templates that let solutions be built on top of Azure IoT Hub without starting from scratch — Thinxtream uses these where they fit a client’s use case.
Both are managed cloud platforms for connecting and managing IoT devices at scale. Azure IoT Hub uses Device Twins to sync device and cloud state and is priced by number of operations; AWS IoT Core uses the equivalent concept of Device Shadow and is priced per connectivity/messaging/usage component. Thinxtream is a technology partner on both and builds on whichever fits a client’s existing cloud environment.
Yes. Azure Machine Learning models can be deployed directly to Azure IoT Edge devices as Docker containers for real-time anomaly detection and predictions, and Azure offers Time Series Insights as an out-of-the-box anomaly detection service for sensor data.
Thinxtream developed a Field Support solution for a Computer Peripherals OEM using Azure IoT Hub and Device Twins, along with Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Service Bus, Azure App Service, Azure AD, and Cosmos DB, to enable remote monitoring, diagnosis, and preventive maintenance.
Azure IoT Hub is metered based on the number of operations between the cloud and devices or applications.
Thinxtream publishes “Developing IoT Solutions with Azure IoT Hub Platform,” covering the building blocks and reference architecture of a typical IoT platform and how Azure IoT Hub realizes them through its managed services. (Note: this is Thinxtream’s own white paper — not to be confused with the third-party book “The Azure IoT Handbook,” which Thinxtream doesn’t publish.)
