Introduction to the Azure IoT Products and an Overview of Azure IoT Hub.

The Azure IoT is a collection of Microsoft Azure managed cloud services that monitor and control IoT devices. In other words, an IoT Solution is a process of establishing a communication channel between IoT devices and back-end services hosted in the cloud.

Azure IoT products and services

Azure IoT products are categorized into two groups…one group of products is used for connectivity and analytics, and other products are used for Edge and device support. Below are IoT products/services provided by Azure.

For connectivity and analytics

For Edge and device support

Azure IoT Hub

It enables highly secure and reliable communication channels between IoT applications and devices. With Azure IoT Hub, technology service providers help you connect and manage IoT devices effortlessly. For instance, Payoda helps you simplify complex IoT processes and take serverless computing to another level. With the infallible security assurance of the Azure IoT hub, you can focus on building smarter IoT applications for your business.

Azure IoT Hub Device Streams

Azure IoT Hub Device Streams are used to establish a secure bi-directional TCP tunnel to perform various cloud-to-device communications. An IoT Hub streaming endpoint acts as a proxy between services endpoints and the devices. The diagram below is useful, especially when devices reside inside a firewall or in a private network.

Key Benefits of IoT Hub device streams

• Firewall friendly secure Connectivity: Service endpoints access IoT devices with outbound port 443 without using the inbound firewall port at network perimeters.
• Authentication: Both device and service-side data in the network tunnel are authenticated by the Hub using their credentials.
• Encryption: IoT Hub device streams use TLS-enabled connections by default. This ensures that the network traffic is always encrypted regardless of whether the underlying application uses encryption or not.
• The simplicity of Connectivity: The use of device streams eliminates the need for a complex VPN setup to enable connectivity to IoT devices.
• Compatibility with TCP/IP stack: It can accommodate TCP/IP application traffic.
• Ease of use in private network setups: Services communicate with a device by its ID rather than IP address. This is useful for locating a device inside a private network via its private IP address or the IP address dynamically assigned by an unknown network to the service side.

With extensive experience in developing highly reliable and secure IoT solutions, Payoda’s IoT development team is world-class. Please talk to our experts to learn more about how Payoda can help accelerate your IoT strategyand help you achieve your enterprise goals.

Authored by: Vivek C