Scalable Architecture for the Internet of Things

Chapter 3. Microsoft Azure IoT Suite

Contributed by Janko Isidorović ([e-mail]) from Mainflux

This chapter focuses on Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite. We will provide an overview of the architecture, before moving on to explain how to set up the basic Azure IoT solution, including event management, system dashboard, telemetry data storage, security, and application integration layer. We will also build an end-to-end example.

Introduction to Microsoft Azure IoT Suite

As the leading software vendor, Microsoft is investing great effort into the IoT. Microsoft’s IoT solution is called Azure IoT Suite; it leverages Azure Cloud infrastructure and extends it to the IoT. With Azure IoT Suite, Microsoft is trying to create a universal platform that can be used by both makers and the industry.

Azure IoT Suite is a cloud solution, although there is a way to use Azure Stack and run some Azure Services on premise. At the time of writing this report, Azure IoT Hub is not available to run on premise.

Figure 3-1 shows the architecture overview of the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite. Azure IoT has several building blocks that can be used to create complex IoT solutions. As with all IoT solutions, Azure IoT Suite can be broken down into three key elements:

• Device connectivity

• Data processing, analytics, and device management

• Presentation and business connectivity

Major Azure service components used for building IoT solutions are:

• IoT Hub

• IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service

• Event ...