Big names including Under Armour and GoPro have launched their products with support from Amazon’s AWS IoT Core, Amazon Web Service’s IoT managed-cloud platform. AWS IoT “lets connected devices easily and securely interact with cloud applications and other devices.”
It’s a top choice for developers because it’s easy to use, has high-security standards and cultivates a culture within the company and more.
Overview of AWS IoT
AWS IoT platforms offer secure communication, data processing and routing and the ability to manage devices across a range of different connected devices and locations in order to serve specific purposes, including industrial IoT applications as well as connected vehicles and connected home solutions. Additionally, AWS IoT Core connects to AWS IoT Analytics, allowing a user to develop analytics and machine learning models.
Putting this simply, the AWS IoT platform hooks up IoT devices in the cloud and then facilitates their secure interaction with each other and with other IoT applications. The platform makes things “smarter” by gathering data, analyzing it and sending it to the cloud for further work.
AWS IoT Core provides the backbone of IoT applications, allowing customers to fully employ their IoT capabilities with the scalable, reliable, secure global computing and storage infrastructure of AWS IoT.
Why developers prefer AWS IoT
Ease of use.
This single factor is why more and more IoT startups are choosing AWS IoT solutions amongst the countless number of platforms competing for their business. According to a survey of developers by the Eclipse Foundation, 51.8 percent of those questioned selected AWS IoT Core as their cloud platform.
Engineers are excited about the platform’s ease of interface, with familiar programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, Python and mobile SDKs. As icing on the cake, AWS IoT device SDKs are open-source functions allowing users to “see the sites” in detail.
High-security standards.
IoT security is clearly one of the biggest concerns of users and the public alike. It is typically a big challenge for IoT startups. Amazon doesn’t skimp on dedicating resources to the security of its customers’ data, communications and devices. Having hit $1 trillion in market capitalization recently, Amazon can afford to continually seek, investigate and implement the most effective security solutions.
To ensure that all exchanges are secure between the AWS IoT platform and its connected devices, the platform utilizes a multitude of authorization, authentication and encryption levels. Both the AWS method (SigV4) and the traditional approach using X.509 certificates are employed. Additionally, customers can create and enforce their own security processes and policies with the AWS Console.
Serverless architecture: Serverless architectures are application designs incorporating third-party “Backend as a Service” (BaaS) capabilities and may include custom code. With these approaches, the architectures eliminate a great deal of the need for a “traditional always-on server component.”
Serverless applications offer exciting ways to capture and validate a startup’ ideas.
They will typically benefit from lower operational costs, engineering lead time and general complexity. Using the serverless concept, an IoT startup can reduce the cost of building an MVP and prototypes and provide agility to the complete development process.
