Nowadays, when IoT applications are massively moving from proof of concept to production, massive amounts of data are being collected and processes and environments are optimized with new solutions. New devices and sensors are becoming more and more sophisticated and designed to run at the AI edge.

With big investments in IoT at the beginning of the year, Microsoft delivered new solutions including  Azure Sphere and Azure Digital Twins, as well as brought Azure IoT EdgeAzure Maps, and Azure IoT Central to general availability.

Early this month Microsoft announced further capabilities for IoT applications from cloud to edge as well as new solutions to accelerate the IoT development process.

New data management features in IoT solutions

General availability of Azure Stream Analytics on IoT Edge

Azure Stream Analytics (ASA) delivers powerful stream processing to Azure IoT Edge and enables local data processing and responses to conditions. ASA simplifies analytics transfer between the edge and cloud which may be critical in use-cases where customers need low-latency command and control, have limited connectivity to the cloud, limited bandwidth, or have certain compliance needs.

Public preview of the IoT Edge enclave security promise

Protecting data and code while in use via Open Enclave SDK for devices at the edge is a way to confidential computing. Open Enclave integrates with Azure IoT Edge security manager, making it accessible for edge developers.

Public preview of the new features in Azure Time Series Insights

Azure Time Series Insights is a fully managed end-to-end IoT analytics solution that allows getting big data insights generated by IoT devices. To allow the most effective data insights Microsoft added a range of new data analytics scenarios. It is no possible to add rich contextualization to incoming telemetry data through time series models and store that IoT data in multi-layered storage either warm or cold as well as to seamlessly integrate with advanced machine learning and analytics solutions to drive predictive analytics. Thus Time Series Insights combines asset-based operational insights with rich ad-hoc analytics. Microsoft also introduces ‘pay-as-you-go’ pricing model which provides customers with enhanced scalability and flexibility.

Azure Maps S1 SKU

Azure Maps is a set of mapping, navigation, and traffic services that adds geospatial context to data, and geospatial intelligence to IoT devices via simple and secure location APIs. In this release, effective of December 4, 2018, Microsoft introduced a new S1 pricing tier for production scale deployments of applications that require Azure Maps at higher than 50 queries per second, advanced functionality, and mission-critical applications.

Azure Maps partnerships

Microsoft continues to deliver enhanced geolocation services tools for developers by announcing a new partnership with a global leader in public transit analytics, Moovit. In early 2019 Moovit will integrate its real-time public transit data directly into Azure Maps which will provide developers with an end-to-end destination for location information and smart city insights, helping urban transportation planners optimize the flow of people while enabling better solutions for retailers, consumers, and more applications.

 

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Speed in the IoT solutions development

With the general availability for Azure IoT Edge customers are now able to deploy cloud workloads like Azure Stream Analytics and Azure Machine Learning to run directly on their IoT devices.

Last week Microsoft has also announced a set of additional enhancements to Azure IoT solution accelerators.

Azure IoT Device Simulation

With Azure IoT Device Simulation developers are now able to create advanced device simulations to test their IoT solutions in development. Learn more about it in the Accelerating IoT solution development and testing with Azure IoT Device Simulation article. IoT Device Simulation specifically provides the following advantages:

  • Quickly set up sample simulations
  • Quick custom devices creation
  • Use of JavaScript to create advanced device models
  • Re-run simulations with saved device models
  • Simulation of complex device populations with multiple device types
  • View throughput metrics and integrated IoT Hub charts

Azure IoT Remote Monitoring

Azure IoT Remote Monitoring makes it easier than ever to empower operators managing all facets of the IoT solutions.

  • Deployment of edge modules to IoT edge devices
  • Trigger actions in response to device alerts
  • Manage device updates using Automatic Device Management
  • Visualize device data using Azure Time Series Insights

Get started with Azure IoT today and check out on the latest features and enhancements!