I had already mentioned the common platforms for hardware to connect. We are forgetting something right? We need a place to send, store and share those data among others in the outside world. Yes, I am talking about Cloud! In this article, you will learn about the best cloud platforms available out there. Few sources mentioned that by 2020 more than 50 billion machines will be connected through Cloud. Most of the devices are internet enabled. So imagine, if there is a demand for connectivity, there would be more competition in the cloud market.
So why do we need a Cloud service?
Say for example, if you are connecting an LED to a Raspberry Pi and you need that to blink whenever you get a notification from your Twitter account. The platform for connecting the LED to the RPi is called the Hardware platform. Besides, the platform for connecting your Twitter account to your Raspberry Pi you need a Cloud platform obviously. There are a billion things connected to the internet and for that, it is harder to maintain the data. Also, sending the data, store, and process all your data is not possible in your home and it’s not practical. So there are great cloud services available to upgrade, maintain and secure your data.
Here is a list of the best cloud platforms available today!
Amazon Web Services IoT Platform
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the best cloud services for its trusted security of data. It offers to compute power, database storage, content delivery, and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow. Companies like Netflix, Kelloggs, Philips, GE, Dropbox, Foursquare, etc rely on the services of Amazon Web Services. In 2017, the famous Gartner ranked AWS as the leading international provider of Cloud Computing. The AWS cloud spans around 60 availability zones, 20 Geographic regions and 1 Local region around the world (as of 2019).
The well-known services of AWS are EC2 and S3. The EC2 ( Elastic Compute Cloud), the operation of non-persistent virtual servers with Windows or Linux. The S3(Simple Storage Service) is a service for file hosting via HTTP/HTTPS. AWS is not only for top companies like Netflix or Reddit, even we can host servers on AWS. It is not a fixed contract, as it is billed monthly or even hourly. The AWS provides certifications on the various level and different domains.
Associate Level AWS Certification Exams cost USD $150, and the Professional Level exams cost USD $300. AWS Specialty Certification exams are available for Advanced Networking, Big Data, and Security.
The official website for the Amazon Web Services.
Microsoft Azure IoT Hub
At the core point of view, Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. Its initial release was in the year 2010 as “Windows Azure” before that it had a name called “Project Red Dog”. On March 25, 2014, it was renamed as “Microsoft Azure”.
It is developed for building, testing, deploying and managing applications through a global network of Microsoft managed data centers. It also provides SaaS (Software as a Service), Paas (Platform as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and supports many programming languages and Microsoft specific including third-party software and systems.
Big companies like Daimler, Adobe, Walmart, NBC, Samsung, Toshiba, Coca Cola, Lufthansa, FedEx and much more are a part of Microsoft Azure. It is a fast, flexible, reliable, 24X7 tech support and its pricing make it the best clouding service in the market. it almost supports any tools , OS or frameworks.
Official Website for Microsoft Azure.
Google Cloud IoT
Cloud IoT Core is a fully managed service that allows you to easily and securely connect, manage, and ingest data from millions of globally dispersed devices. In combination with other services on Google Cloud platform, provides a complete solution for collecting, processing, analyzing, and visualizing IoT data in real time to support improved operational efficiency.
Cloud IoT Core – Secure device connection and management service for Internet of Things. cloud IoT Edge brings AI to the Edge computing layer. Google Cloud Platform is available in 17 regions and 52 zones. They have different pricing methods.
Read Case Study on Smart Parking by Google
Google Cloud IoT Core has two main components: a device manager and a protocol bridge. The device manager allows individual devices to be configured and managed through a console or programmatically. It can be remotely controlled from the cloud. The protocol bridge provides connection endpoints for protocols with automatic load balancing for all device connections. The protocol bridge has native support for secure connection over industry standard protocols such as MQTT and HTTP.
Official website of Google IoT Core
IBM Watson IoT Platform
IBM Watson IoT Platform is a managed, cloud-hosted service designed to make it simple to derive value from your IoT devices. Watson IoT Platform and its additional add on services – Blockchain service and analytic service – enable organizations to capture and explore data for devices, equipment, and machines, and discover insights that can drive better decision-making.
IBM Watson captures real-time data helps to identify the valuable insights, optimizes operations and resources, analytics service and blockchain service. Overall, it securely connects, manages and analyzes IoT data. You will get 100 MB free of every month, and for pricing click here.
Official Website of IBM Watson IoT Platform
Bosch IoT Suite
The Bosch IoT Suite is a cloud-ready software package for the development of
According to Bosch, several million devices and machines from various application areas are already connected to the Bosch IoT Suite. Developers in the IoT Suite can rely on a toolbox that provides all the functionality needed to implement sophisticated IoT applications. The suite is based on open standards and open source solutions. Individual components of the suite, such as the device management, can also be operated outside the cloud on their own IT equipment.
Cisco IoT
Cisco IoT accelerates digital transformation, delivering insight and action from your data. It provides Cisco Kinetic IoT platform to extract, compute and move from data. It protects your IoT data
Oracle IoT Cloud
Oracle IoT is more into logistics operations and supply chain management derived data from the connected devices. It is secure and scalable with real-time insights. It supports industrial protocols, backhaul WAN technologies, and transport protocols like RESTful and MQTT.
Salesforce
The Salesforce is an on-demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which provides suites for small and midsize enterprises with a focus on sales and support. The Cloud management of Salesforce is provided by Thunder which is focussed on high speed and real-time decision making in the cloud. It’s motive is to create more customer interactions.
Some more examples of companies that have IoT platform
- AT&T – AT&T IoT platform
- Ericsson – Application Platform for IoT
- Gemalto – SensorLogic
- HPE – HPE Universal IoT platform
- PTC- ThingWorx Technology Platform
- SAP – SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the Internet of Things
- Siemens – Mindsphere
- Particle
- KAA
Carriots - Axeda
Which one you should choose?
Every Cloud platform has its own identity and features from infrastructure and service providers to supply chain management and customer relationship. It all depends on
