How does the Cloud fit into the Internet of Things (IoT)?


The term “The cloud” is at the top list of trendy technologies in the ’20s. When something is in the Cloud, it means it's stored on virtual servers rather than in your computer's hard drive. Hence, it works out great for businesses operating in multiple countries.

Since the Cloud operates virtually, it doesn't matter if multiple users request access to the same file simultaneously. This technology allows everyone to view any file at any time. Additionally, the Cloud offers constant data backup and is accessible from any device. This is why your old phone is broken, and when you log in to Instagram with your new mobile, your Instagram account continues from where it left off. A lot of Google service providers operate similarly. Gmail, google drive, drive, etc., are at core work on the Cloud.

Thanks to the Cloud, businesses don't incur capital, operational, or hardware maintenance costs. This can benefit start-ups that have limited funding in more extended aspects. Small companies prefer buying cloud services as they are cost-effective, while more giant corporations build the Cloud at their premises.

Cloud and IoT together

How do IoT and Cloud fit each other?

We can benefit from the advantages of the Cloud and IoT if we combine them. If we store something in the Cloud, it is accessible to everyone based on the permission settings. Similarly, IoT becomes available to everyone via the Cloud. Many IoT devices now collect massive amounts of data every minute, but processing it on them is tricky.

Deploying IoT architecture on the cloud platform has several advantages. High-complexity tasks like data computing required by IoT devices are now done on the Cloud. As the IoT device count increases, data collection is also going higher, leading to the need for cloud storage in the current world because more data requires analytical analysis too. Apart from storage and access, IoT devices also look for considerable security settings. IoT on the Cloud provides security by enabling role-specific permissions.

Three Popular Cloud services that fit into IoT

IoT devices require analytical computing, business analytics, and machine learning advancements. Still, due to resource constraints present in smart devices, it is challenging to integrate them into IoT. Hence, the Cloud provides enormous resources for IoT connections to perform required tasks to reach business goals.

Amazon IoT platform − The popular leading cloud provider for IoT applications is developed by the tech giant Amazon. Amazon offers a wide range of cloud assistance for IoT through AWS. This framework in IoT provides outstanding competitive technology solutions from big data, machine learning, etc., The smart devices connected virtually through AWS are more secure and faster. AWS also features IoT devices with automatic data analytical options leading to further ML use cases.

Azure IoT − Microsoft's Azure is many businesses' next competitive cloud service provider. Azure IoT Hub, Azure Digital Twins, and Azure IoT Central are a set of services from Microsoft for IoT. Microsoft's Azure IoT hub is primarily concerned with IoT device security and communication, and Azure Digital Twins is more focused on creating digital delineation for IoT devices. Microsoft Azure IoT Central is a ready-made UX and API surface designed to improve the scalability of IoT applications. It functions similarly to a cloud platform as a service(PaaS) provider.

Google Cloud IoT platform − Google is engaged in a variety of promising services worldwide, like Gmail, Google maps, blogger, etc., working on the Cloud. Similarly, Google created an IoT core cloud platform for 5G technology. The IoT core consists of two major components. It is both a communication broker and a device management system. IoT core is a platform that enables your IoT devices access to the entire Google cloud. Hence, Google is known for its advancements in providing IoT core platforms to smart devices.

Conclusion

The future collaboration of IoT and the Cloud appears to be brighter. The demand for the Cloud in IoT grows as the need for storage and resource requirements in IoT expands. So, it became mandatory for the Cloud and IoT to collabora unofficially.

This article discussed several cloud providers that are best suited for IoT businesses. Building your cloud servers from scratch for IoT deployments is also an option, but it is time-consuming and expensive for small-scale companies. Through this article, you can have got why the Cloud is the best fit for IoT applications.

Updated on: 05-Jan-2023

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