Azure Certified for IoT and the Azure IoT Device Catalog
Update Feb. 2024 - The Azure Certified Device program has concluded on February 23, 2024. This means that the Azure Certified Device catalog, along with certifications for Azure Certified Device, Edge Managed, and IoT Plug and Play will no longer be available after this date. However, the Edge Secured-core program will remain active and will be relocated to a new home at aka.ms/EdgeSecuredCoreHome. ------------------------------------------- When businesses set out on an IoT project, they have many things to consider: how the device connects to the internet, supported industry protocols. compatible sensors, and more. As IoT increasingly moves into the cloud space, one of the most important considerations is cloud compatibility. As Azure continues to grow, Azure compatibility for IoT devices is becoming a key component of the device selection process. To help with this, Microsoft has two programs to help you ensure your IoT device is compatible and discoverable: The Azure Certified for IoT program and the Azure IoT Device Catalog. The Azure Certified for IoT program is a pre-requisite for a device being included in the Azure IoT Device Catalog. There are currently three different certifications a device can achieve: IoT Devices, IoT Start Kit and IoT Edge Device. IoT Device certification covers bi-directional connectivity between the device and Azure IoT Hub. IoT Starter Kit certification builds on IoT Device certification, adding the reading of data from attached sensors, which is then sent to the cloud. IoT Edge Device certification builds on the IoT Device and Starter Kit certifications, adding Azure IoT Hub connectivity, IoT Edge runtime pre-installation, and basic device management. Once your IoT device is certified, it is qualified for inclusion in the Azure IoT Device Catalog. Resources – Azure Certified for IoT Program FAQ Azure Iot Device certification guides Azure IoT Starter Kit certification guide Azure IoT Edge Device certification guide Azure Certified for IoT Device catalog Find more Intelligent Edge resources for device builders at the Intelligent Edge Device Builder Resource Center.Hands-on: Learn how to deliver OTA firmware updates with Azure IoT Hub
IoT and intelligent Edge devices deployed in the field sometimes require firmware updates to improve security or resilience. It is often impractical to physically visit every single device and manually apply new firmware, not to mention time consuming. Azure IoT Hub offers an automatic device management feature to help you roll out updates quickly and easily over the air (OTA). You can get familiar with how this is done by using an MXChip IoT DevKit by following the tutorial in GitHub Update IoT DevKit firmware OTA (Over-the-Air) through Azure IoT Hub Automatic Device Management. If you already have an MXChip IoT DevKit, give it a try today! If you need one, purchase a DevKit from SeeedStudio.Ready to dive in to IoT Plug and Play to get your device certified?
Update Feb. 2024 - The Azure Certified Device program has concluded on February 23, 2024. This means that the Azure Certified Device catalog, along with certifications for Azure Certified Device, Edge Managed, and IoT Plug and Play will no longer be available after this date. However, the Edge Secured-core program will remain active and will be relocated to a new home at aka.ms/EdgeSecuredCoreHome. ------------------------------------------------- If you are ready to get your feet wet and certify an IoT device as IoT Plug and Play ready, and get the hardware fast-tracked into the Azure Certified for IoT device catalog, these are the resources for you - Read IoT Central documentation to learn how to build solutions with IoT Plug and Play devices. Read the IoT Plug and Play documentation to learn how to build solutions using the Azure IoT platform. Learn how to build and certify IoT Plug and Play devices. View the Digital Twin Definition Language specification on GitHub. Tune in to the Internet of Things Show deep dive on September 11. Browse IoT Plug and Play devices on the Azure IoT Device Catalog. See a demo of IoT Plug and Play bridge with a MODBUS environmental sensor on the Channel 9 IoT Show. Try IoT Plug and Play bridge on GitHub. Learn how to implement IoT spatial analytics using Azure Maps and IoT Plug and Play location schema. Find more resources like these for Intelligent Edge device building at the Intelligent Edge Device Builder Resource Center.Build 2019: IoT Plug and Play
Among the many announcements occurring at //Build 2019 this month, one stands out for IoT device makers: IoT Plug and Play. IoT Plug and Play offers a new, open modeling language for connecting IoT devices seamlessly to the cloud, without having to write a single line of embedded code. At the center of IoT Plug and Play is a schema describing device capabilities, the “Device Capability Model” JSON-LD document. This document is structured as a set of interfaces comprised of: properties (attributes like firmware version, or settings like fan speed), telemetry (sensor readings such as temperature, or events such as alerts), and commands the device can receive (such as reboot). Interfaces can be reused across Device Capability Models to enhance collaboration and speed development. The IoT Plug and Play schema is unified with the upcoming Digital Twin Definition Language (DTDL). Both are based on open W3C standards such as JSON-LD and RDF, allowing for easier adoption across services and tooling. IoT Plug and Play and the DTDL are open to the community and Microsoft welcomes collaboration with customers, partners, and the industry. Learn More - Azure IoT Plug and Play GitHub repository IoT Plug and Play announcement blog post, from Julia White, CVP of Microsoft AzureAzure IoT Edge 1.0.8 releases with updates to the supported OS and more
Azure IoT Edge was recently updated to version 1.0.8. With this update, several new OS distributions are now supported by the Azure IoT Edge client: Preview support for ARM64 on Linux Windows Server 2019 support is GA (as of 1.0.7) Windows IoT Core x64 support is GA Other improvements include: Performance improvements for uploading messages from the Edge Hub to the cloud Increased reliability for syncing twin updates with the cloud Improved stability on ARM32 Installation has been improved for Linux ARM32 and ARM64 All packages are now hosted on packages.microsoft.com and can be installed with simple apt-get commands instead of downloading the packages and manually installing them. Module twins are now encrypted at rest when cached on an Edge device. Complete release notes - https://github.com/Azure/azure-iotedge/releases Update instructions - Update the IoT Edge security daemon and runtime Azure IoT Edge GitHub home - https://github.com/Azure/azure-iotedge Azure IoT Edge documentation - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-edge/ Find more Intelligent Edge resources for device builders at the Intelligent Edge Device Builder Resource Center.Azure IoT announcements at IoT Solutions World Congress
This week at IoT Solutions World Congress, Microsoft announced a number of new Azure IoT capabilities, aimed to simplify the customer journey and deliver highly secured IoT solutions, of interest to hardware manufacturers and designers. API support for extending IoT Central or integrating it with other solutions, including API support for device modeling, provisioning, lifecycle management, operations and data querying IoT Edge support, including management for edge devices and IoT Edge module deployments IoT plug-and-play support for rapid device development and connectivity Azure RTOS support across many Renesas MCUs (MicroController Units) families For more details, and the full list of exciting announcements, read Sam George's (Corporate VP of Azure IoT) full blog post - Unlocking opportunities in the next frontier of IoT If you are looking for more information on the many solutions Microsoft has for IoT and the Intelligent Edge, check out the Intelligent Edge Resource Center and the AI@Edge Community sites!The IoT Show: Unboxing the Vision AI DevKit
The Vision AI DevKit appears in the latest 'The IoT Show' in an unboxing demo with Mahesh Yadev and Olivier Bloch. The full video is embedded at the bottom of this post. From the show description - Mahesh Yadav, Software Engineer on the Intelligent Edge team, joins the IoT Show to unbox the Microsoft Vision AI DevKit (aka.ms/iotshow/visionaidevkit), a smart camera for the intelligent edge. The developer kit uses the Qualcomm's Vision Intelligence 300 Platform which uniquely runs machine learning with hardware acceleration delivering results in milliseconds which is perfect for connected car or connected factory scenarios where you need low latency as well as support offline scenarios. In this episode, you will see how easy it is to bring up AI on the edge with Azure IoT Edge and Azure Machine Learning. The DevKit includes a sample AI model that identifies 183 objects including people, laptops, chairs and more. The highlight of the show is a real-time camera demo that asserts that both Mahesh and Olivier really are people.Build 2019: Using Azure IoT Hub to prototype an internet connected device
In a time where everything is expected to be internet connected, it is imperative that hardware makers find simpler ways to prototype and validate new hardware designs quickly. Azure IoT Hub, with Azure device twin settings, provides a great way of doing this. At //Build 2019, Jim Bennett, Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, presented the session, Prototyping an internet connected smart home device with Azure IoT Hub. In this session he looked at how to create a prototype interconnected fan unit using an IoT prototyping board. This board will connect to Azure to upload sensor data, and connect to a fan turning it on if the temperature is above a threshold. The threshold will then be made configurable using Azure device twin, allowing it to be easily controlled from a cloud-connected mobile app via Azure Functions. The principles shown can be applied to a production system running on appropriate custom hardware. Watch the full video here - Build Session THR2020AI@Edge Community - Samples and other resources to kick start your AI hardware project on the Edge
Are you starting an IoT project that needs to take advantage of AI processing at the edge? Do you want to find some great example projects to kick start your planning? The AI@Edge community pages are a great place to find resources and sample projects for using Azure services to move your project to the prototype stage quickly. There are many example projects, guides to creating AI/machine Learning models, help for choosing the best hardware and more. You will also find links to additional community resources and live events you can participate in. Give the site a check today!Preview release of IoT Plug and Play
Chris Green, Principle Program Manager in the Azure IoT team has published a blog post announcing the Preview release of IoT Plug and Play. First announced at Build in May of 2019, IoT Plug and Play simplifies device integration for IoT solutions through the use of device capability models defined with the Device Twin definition language. With today’s announcement, solution developers can start using Azure IoT Central or Azure IoT Hub to build solutions that integrate seamlessly with IoT devices enabled with IoT Plug and Play. Also launched is a new Azure Certified for IoT portal for device partners interested in streamlining the device certification submission process, getting devices into the Azure IoT device catalog quickly. Read the full blog post for details on how you can build and certify your hardware products: IoT Plug and Play is now available in preview Find more Intelligent Edge resources for device builders at the Intelligent Edge Device Builder Resource Center.
