One of the most critical elements to a successful IoT solution is implementing a deliberate strategy for the ongoing management of devices. Following our preview of Azure IoT Hub device management earlier this year, our stellar community of developers and partners provided feedback that enabled us to introduce new features and functionality now generally available to all customers.
Azure IoT Hub device management equips IoT developers and operators with the ability to the harness the power of the Azure hyper-scale cloud to organize, monitor, query, and orchestrate changes across billions of devices. IoT operators can leverage Azure IoT Hub device management tools and applications that address many common business needs, including:
- Scale & Automation – Simple automation of routine tasks to enable management of millions of devices with a relatively small staff of operators
- Openness & Compatibility – Tailored management for a multitude of device classes, platform types, operating systems, and protocol standards
- Context Awareness – Flexible and intelligent design that accounts for the dynamic nature of manufacturing and industrial environments to preserve service reliability, machinery health, and the safety of operators and users
- Service Many Roles – Supports the workflows and process of IoT operators while also facilitating collaboration with other mission-critical technical and business roles
With the general availability of Azure IoT Hub device management to all customers, both new and existing Azure IoT Hub customers will have access to these new features and functionality:
Device Twin – The digital representation of your physical devices that allows synchronization of device conditions and operator configuration between the cloud and device.
Direct Methods – Apply a direct, performant action on a connected device through the cloud.
Jobs – Broadcast and schedule device twin changes and methods to scale management operations across millions of devices.
Queries – Create real-time, dynamic reports across device twins and jobs to attest status and health for entire device collections whether your devices are on or offline.
This functionality is available as part of the Azure IoT device SDK and the device-side support is shipping today for C, Node.js, and Python with C# and Java coming soon. In additions to these foundational building blocks, we are also making libraries available to support the following device management actions:
Firmware Update – apply a supplied firmware image on a single device or collection of devices
Reboot – initiate a restart on one or more devices
Factory Reset – revert a device or collection of devices to the initial factory image and configuration
Configuration – use the device twin desired properties to configure the behavior of one or many devices whether they are on or offline
The implementation for these actions is also available for the Raspberry Pi 2 & 3. In addition, we’re in the process of working with a broad community of IoT and industrial Internet device manufactures to bring first-party support to a much wider variety of devices.
Learn more about today’s enhancements to Azure IoT Hub device management by reviewing our overview and get started guides. We take customer feedback very seriously, so please continue to submit your suggestions through the Azure IoT User Voice forum or join the Azure IoT Advisors Yammer group.
