Recent violations of individuals’ privacy, the entrenchment of corporate or personal biases within life-altering algorithms, the persistent threat of technology undermining livelihoods, and the reckless beta testing of insecure or malfunctioning connected devices or vehicles on unsuspecting populations have understandably fostered skepticism among the general public, lawmakers, and regulatory bodies. As we peer into the near future, where generative AI and virtual worlds are advancing at a pace that outstrips our ability to monitor them, the issue of trust only intensifie

More technology isn’t going to solve this problem. Customers are looking at the choices that company leaders make and assessing whether those choices match individual consumers’ and citizens’ values — and whether they put people first. Because every company uses some form of digital technology in its operations and relationships with customers and partners, every company needs to worry about digital trust.  

“Digital trust programs are a necessity, and when done right, can be both a differentiator and enabler for a business. As demands rise for companies to show they are trustworthy, organizations should strive to build a digital trust strategy that meets or exceeds their customers’ expectations, not just what’s legally required,” according to Vikram Rao, Salesforce’s Chief Trust Officer and a member of the World Economic Forum Digital Trust Steering Committee. 

Some companies may look at the problem and hope they can buy or hire their way out of it. In some cases, a new role, like a Chief Trust Officer or Chief Digital Trust Officer may help. However, before CEOs and boards rush into creating a c-suite role as a panacea, they need to take a hard look at what exactly trustworthy technology looks like in the 21st century, how companies earn digital trust, and what changes and investments they need to make to do that. 

What makes technology trustworthy? 

No technology is inherently trustworthy or untrustworthy. After all, technologies have no agency in themselves; instead, as a character in the Afrofuturist film Neptune Frost puts it, “technology is only a reflection of us.” Trust in technology reflects the decisions people make when they develop the tech, use it, and implement it. While there are many ways to think about trust, when the World Economic Forum convened business, government, and civil society leaders in the field of trustworthy tech, the assembled group reached this consensus: “Digital trust is individuals’ expectation that digital technologies and services, and the organizations providing them will protect all stakeholders’ interests and uphold societal expectations and values.” 

In this work, the Forum’s Digital Trust Community realized that the most important question to ask with regard to technology is not “How do you get people to trust technology?” Rather it’s “What do we need to do as technology developers, owners, and users to respect people’s values and expectations?” With the right mindset and the right goals, it’s possible to develop an effective and trustworthy strategy for the use of digital technology. At its heart, such a trustworthy tech strategy comes from consideration for the individuals subjected to new technologies (regardless of the technology in question). 

With respect for individual rights and expectations in mind, a trustworthy digital technology strategy should identify the right goals. The World Economic Forum’s digital trust community offered three broad sets of goals: 

• Security and Reliability 
• Accountability and Oversight, and 
• Inclusive, Ethical, and Responsible Use 

As Julie Brill, Microsoft’s Chief Privacy Officer and a member of the Forum’s Digital Trust Steering Committee said at the time, “the goals of any developer of AI or other technologies should mirror the goals of the organizations and individuals who use or encounter that technology. Shared goals of inclusivity and responsible use, strong privacy and security protections, and effective oversight are the foundational elements to building a trustworthy relationship between developers, their customers, and individuals who use the technology.” Users and consumers can better rely on technologies that protect them, that include their needs and match their values, and that have good governance practices baked in, to remediate any inadvertent harms. 

How do you invest in digital trust? 

Earning digital trust isn’t simple, and it can’t be automated. Rather it requires a series of judgment calls, investments, and organizational changes that reflect the totality of a technology’s likely impact on individuals. These shifts, encompassing the whole business, can only be orchestrated by company leaders. As Keith Enright, Chief Privacy Officer at Google and Digital Trust Steering Committee member, said, “Decisions companies are making now about preparedness determine where they will be down the line in terms of trust.” 

Becoming prepared to start earning back trust requires CEOs and Boards of Directors to do at least three things: 

• Define a vision for digital trust. 
• Plan to act in more trustworthy ways. 
• Recruit people who will help earn trust. 

The first investment leaders need to make is to take the time and energy to truly understand the impact of the technologies they create or deploy. Developing a realistic and comprehensive vision for how an organization uses technology in service of its goals and those of the people who rely on it determines how an organization will invest in digital trust. 

Leaders should approach decisions involving technology with a clear sense of how those technologies reflect and impact core organizational values and the values of the society in which the business operates. Their vision for creating or adopting new technologies must consider both the benefits to the business and society alongside a clear and responsible assessment of the potential harms new technologies might impose on potential customers or other stakeholders. 

For example, a business adopting generative AI must assess how the technology might increase efficiencies (a benefit to the business), unlock new solutions to pressing challenges (a benefit to society) while also developing a plan to prevent expected harms. Only a vision that responsibly considers both the benefits and the risk of new technology can truly be considered trustworthy. 

After deciding on a vision that includes trustworthy goals, organizations need a plan to act for digital trust. This plan requires leaders to invest in the internal structures and teams that best support digital trust. For all applications of digital technology, the Forum’s work identified eight dimensions where positive action can help achieve an organization’s goals — both trust goals and overall financial or strategic goals. Those dimensions are cybersecurity, safety, transparency, interoperability, auditability, redressability, fairness and privacy.

In most organizations, the aforementioned areas likely fall to different departments and leaders, which means optimizing them requires an interdisciplinary approach, and possibly some structural change, in order to support the careful decision-making required to earn trust from users and other stakeholders. However, the realities of a given industry or company may mean it’s not possible to maximize every one of the dimensions described. For example, greater transparency may not be possible for companies who work in highly sensitive industries (e.g., national security), so their accountability and security would have to supplement. Similarly, some dimensions of trustworthiness (perhaps most noticeably privacy) vary between jurisdictions and geographies. 

The third big initial investment is in the people who can help the business earn digital trust. Making technology trustworthy is a multi-faceted effort conducted on an organizational (or societal) scale — which means that the ultimate responsibility for trustworthiness falls to the CEO. This general duty of trustworthy technology decision-making doesn’t mean that the business shouldn’t invest in recruiting experts (maybe even on the c-suite), who can help establish the right strategy, and the right structures, to support digital trust. 

This leader, possibly a Chief Trust Officer, Chief Privacy Officer, General Counsel, CISO, or another executive must be both an expert in stakeholder management and a trusted counsellor to the CEO and the board. Stakeholder management comes into play where companies already have cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, and even ethics functions. The leads for each of those roles has a stake in the overall trustworthiness of the digital strategy of a company — in both building it and benefiting from it. To be a counselor on digital trust, this individual must also be able to think systemically — bridging between these disciplines in order to help leaders make the best judgement call on how, where, and toward what ends new technologies should be applied. 

To be most effective, an officer responsible for digital trust can’t be an expert on every technology and every facet of trust, rather they have to be able to understand the strategy for the company and the values of affected individuals, workers, and customers. They support development of a trustworthy vision by conveying a system-wide picture of what the technology landscape looks like to CEOs and boards and helping build a strategy that supports trust rather than erodes it. They also help oversee the myriad and interdepending actions that, taken together, earn trust from users, partners, and other stakeholders. 

CEOs must understand that trust in the technology that underlies and enables virtually every business can’t be bought. However, by dedicating the necessary time to make well-informed decisions, develop a credible vision, and assemble a capable team of supporters, it can be earned.

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The utilization of emerging technologies a service provides a competitive advantage to XaaS (Anything as a Service) adopters who leverage service-based IT for access to state-of-the-art features and technologies. 

As XaaS becomes increasingly prevalent, the question arises: how will adopters maintain and establish a competitive edge? One possible answer lies in the realm of emerging technologies. 

Over the last decade, organizations across various sectors have sought greater control over their enterprise IT infrastructure and payment methods. In response, technology providers have transitioned towards a service-oriented model for delivering products, capabilities, and tools (Hardcastle, 2019; Narcisi, 2020; Haranas, 2020).  

To investigate the value derived from adopting enterprise IT as-a-service, encompassing motivations, outcomes, and challenges, Deloitte conducted an XaaS study involving 600 IT and line-of-business professionals responsible for service-based IT within large US organizations (Deloitte Insights).  

Enterprises have enthusiastically embraced the XaaS model, marking a significant shift from traditional, non-service IT to XaaS, with no signs of slowing down (Deloitte Insights, 2018). A staggering 75% of survey respondents confirmed that their organizations already operate more than half of their enterprise IT as-a-service, and 70% have intentions to expand their XaaS investments (Deloitte Insights). In the wake of disruptive pandemic conditions, organizations are increasingly motivated to adapt and enhance their agility. The crisis has underscored the value of XaaS, prompting executives to accelerate their departure from conventional IT methods. 

Beyond streamlining operations for efficiency gains, XaaS adopters are leveraging service-based IT to tap into cutting-edge features and technologies, fostering innovation and enabling the creation of novel processes, products, and business models. Approximately 60% of respondents believe XaaS provides them with a competitive edge, with a quarter of them claiming a “significant lead.” However, given the growing ubiquity of XaaS, adopters may need to work harder to distinguish themselves in the future. 

A noteworthy trend is the widespread adoption of software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, and platform-as-a-service, with over 80% of respondents confirming their companies’ current usage and almost everyone planning to adopt them within the next two years. Nevertheless, our analysis reveals that organizations expanding their XaaS adoption to encompass advanced or emerging technologies as-a-service may be better positioned for a competitive advantage (Deloitte Insights). 

AI-as-a-service and IoT-as-a-service represent substantial and expanding markets, with the AI-as-a-service market forecasted to reach $10.88 billion by 2023 (MarketsandMarkets) and the IoT cloud platform market projected to grow to $11.5 billion by 2025 (MarketsandMarkets). Additionally, intelligent edge computing, a newcomer to XaaS, is rapidly gaining significance, such as in healthcare settings where it supports clinical decision-making by processing patient data near medical devices (GE, BusinessWire). Similarly, in urban environments, edge computing is applied to analyze real-time traffic data and manage traffic signals (Mass Transit). 

In conclusion, to establish and maintain a competitive edge through XaaS utilization, organizations should consider several factors. These include defining a clear strategy and roadmap for XaaS adoption, scaling up XaaS usage where underutilized, and leveraging XaaS for innovation, particularly in the context of accessing advanced or emerging technologies as-a-service. While incorporating advanced capabilities as services is a crucial element, it is just one part of the recipe for building and sustaining a competitive advantage with XaaS.

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What is Azure IoT? 

Azure is the world’s computer, and Azure IoT is a digital cloud for computers. Azure IoT is a platform that aids organizations in managing, organizing, connecting, and monitoring devices on the Internet of Things.  

Long story short, IoT solutions are developed or built with one or more IoT devices that connect with various back-end services accommodated in the cloud.  

How is IoT used in the cloud? Through the IoT Hub which is a managed service that enables you to connect, monitor, and manage IoT devices at scale. It supports multiple protocols, such as MQTT, AMQP, and HTTP, and can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud. 

How does Azure IoT work? 

Azure IoT operates as a comprehensive ecosystem that facilitates seamless connectivity, data management, and analysis for Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. IoT devices, ranging from sensors to machinery, connect securely to Azure IoT Hub, which serves as the central hub for data ingestion. This telemetry data, including sensor readings and device status, is efficiently processed, analyzed, and stored using Azure’s suite of services like Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Machine Learning, and various storage options.

Azure IoT Device Management simplifies the management and provisioning of devices at scale, while robust security features ensure secure device connectivity, data transmission, and identity management.

Building effective IoT solutions using Microsoft Azure IoT 

To build an effective IoT solution using Microsoft Azure IoT, below are the steps to follow:  

• Start with the right technology: Microsoft Azure provides a wide variety of technology to build robust IoT solutions for your business. Your needs should determine the technology you choose. 
  Azure IoT offers technologies like Azure PaaS for IoT, IoT and edge device support, and Azure IoT Central (aPaaS). While preparing IoT solutions from scratch, organizations can use Azure IoT architecture, including Azure PaaS for IoT, IoT, and edge device support. Azure IoT Central is a ready-made environment for developing IoT solutions in Azure IoT.  
• Link heaps of devices: You need to design and implement your solution in a way that it can scale to accommodate many devices and users. Azure IoT hub seamlessly integrates and supports a broad set of operating systems and protocols and can even collaborate with existing devices.
  Organizations can also use the starter kit offered by Microsoft Azure to develop IoT devices, or select from the Azure Certified for IoT device catalogue, where enterprises can find hundreds of devices tested and placed independently to connect seamlessly to the IoT hub.  
• Add rule and action: To create a rule for your device, you can get started with IoT central rules. In specific conditions, IoT rules aid your organization with automated actions. To start, your organization can create a rule in the IoT Hub rule engine that triggers the desired action when a specific telemetry message is received. 
• Increase security: Devices must be registered and have legitimate credentials before sending messages from Azure to devices or from devices to Azure. Each IoT device’s authentication and security-related data is stored in an identity registry part of Azure IoT. To avoid illegal access to the identity information of IoT devices, it is held separately from other device metadata. The device credentials can be retrieved from the solution dashboard and added to your client application. 
• Test and scale with competence: You can get started with the Adafruit Raspberry Pi 3 kit, which includes word processing, spreadsheets, and games. It has all the required sensors and parts and runs Windows 10. Alternatively, you may choose Seed, an Intel Edison Kit perfect for business solutions or project prototyping where performance counts. 
• Scale to wider deployment after a successful POC project:  Businesses only make payments when they use the resources. So, starting with a PoC is an efficient and cost-effective way to determine how Azure IoT may assist you in developing a successful IoT implementation. 

Building IoT solutions using Microsoft Azure IoT opens up a world of possibilities for businesses seeking to harness the power of the Internet of Things. With Azure’s comprehensive suite of tools and services, the journey from concept to implementation becomes not only feasible but also streamlined and secure. 

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What is the Internet of Things? 

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing market that is bringing an ever-increasing number of connected devices and innovative solutions that mix compute power, sensors, and other hardware with the physical world to provide monitoring, predictive, and automation functionality across both consumer and industrial applications. On the face, IoT simply means the Internet connecting compute devices to perform some kind of tasks, however, the modern world of IoT is much different than this original definition that is from the early 2000’s or even earlier in a time before the cloud. 

In the modern world of the cloud, the Internet of Things means a bit more than building a system comprised of interrelated computing devices with the ability to transfer data over a network. With the cloud, these devices are being connected to vast amounts of compute and storage capabilities in the cloud that offer much greater analysis, prediction, and reporting features. This means that modern IoT solutions are capable of not just providing an automation layer that doesn’t require human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction, but they are also able to integrate Machine Learning (ML / AI), analytics, and real-time decision capabilities for building innovative solutions with a higher level of business value. 

Components of an IoT Solution 

At the highest level, all modern Internet of Things (IoT) solutions are built using devices and services that integrate both local on-premises-based components with cloud-based components. The local / on-premises components are generally some combination of devices, gateways, and Edge compute devices, while the cloud components used are message hubs, storage, and enhanced compute providing analysis and machine learning (ML) capabilities. 

1. IoT Devices 

IoT devices are the components of an Internet of Things solution that provide the integration with the physical world. These devices come in different sizes from small microcontrollers (MCUs) to larger compute devices. Regardless of the amount of compute power the IoT device has, it i’s an IoT device and not just a compute device because it is connected to some combination of sensors and/or actuators. In short, an IoT device has connected hardware that is able to observe and/or manipulate the physical world. 

In addition to being connected to other hardware, most IoT devices have a few more properties in common: 

• Network connected using Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or even Cellular (like 4G or 5G) 

• Transmit sensor readings to a gateway device, or directly to the cloud 
• Operate in the field, anywhere in the world, for extended periods of time without human interaction 
• May be built using low-powered hardware with batteries or solar power allowing the device to operate for extended periods without human interaction 
• May have sensors to detect tampering to ensure the device remains secure wherever it was deployed 
• Able to store sensor readings and other data locally for a few hours, up to multiple days, in case network connectivity is lost, then data will be uploaded to the cloud once connectivity is restored 

IoT devices may communicate directly to the cloud or an IoT gateway device. This process of sending event data from an IoT device to the cloud is called device-to-cloud messaging. The IoT device could also receive communications from the cloud to direct it to take action, reconfigure settings, or install firmware updates, and this method is called cloud-to-device messaging. 

2. IoT Gateways 

An IoT Gateway is a special type of device that other devices connect to and communicate with, and they sit somewhere in the network topology of the IoT solution between the “child” IoT devices connecting to it and the cloud. Gateways offer the ability to implement additional functionalities that perhaps the individual IoT devices are not able to do themselves. For example, an IoT Gateway can aggregate all the sensor readings from low-powered devices that don’t support encryption and then securely communicate that data up to the cloud. 

There are two main types of IoT Gateways: 

• Field Gateway – Serves as a connection point between the cloud and one or more devices providing functionalities like event data aggregation, enhancement of event data with additional metadata, additional encryption on the data transmitted to the cloud, and others. 

• Protocol Gateway – A specific type of IoT gateway that provides IoT messaging protocol translation as event data is transmitted from the IoT devices to the cloud. This is useful for when an IoT device natively communicates using a protocol not supported by the cloud. The Protocol Gateway can enable these IoT devices to be integrated into the modern IoT solution and the cloud services; rather than requiring the devices to be replaced or even limiting the ability to build an IoT solution as required by the business. 

IoT Gateways, when integrated into the security trust zones and boundaries of an IoT solution, can be used to minimize the attack vectors of the IoT solution. Using an IoT Gateway in this way allows for one or more IoT devices to connect to and communicate with the IoT gateway, rather than connecting to the cloud directly. By adding network segmentation to isolate these devices to only be able to communicate with the IoT gateway, you can turn a scenario with dozens or even hundreds of devices that would otherwise connect directly to the cloud, to instead have a single IoT gateway device connect to the cloud on behalf of the individual IoT devices 

Keep in mind that IoT Gateways are not the same as Edge Gateways or Edge devices. While most Edge devices are Gateways, not all IoT Gateways are really Edge devices. IoT Edge devices provide much more compute and other capabilities, while IoT Gateways are generally more simplified components. 

IoT Edge 

IoT Edge is the area of compute within a solution that lies on the edge of the network right before communication is sent up to the cloud. This area of compute is also known as Edge Computing or may be referred to as Fog Computing to keep with the Cloud metaphor. In an IoT solution, the Edge is where you bring down cloud capabilities in compute, storage, and processing to run on the local network closer to the IoT devices. 

Running cloud compute, storage, and processing capabilities closer to IoT devices enables several enhancements to IoT solutions: 

• Lower latency communication from IoT devices to compute, storage, and processing capabilities 
• Ability to offer Offline mode where the solution runs in a disconnected state where the Cloud services are unreachable 
• Increased security by keeping data on the local network and only sending data to the Cloud where necessary; if at all 
• Integrate more advanced compute and processing capabilities (Machine Learning and Analytics) into the IoT solution that runs within the local network 

There are many scenarios where IoT Edge or Edge Compute capabilities enable IoT innovations to be possible where they really weren’t possible or feasible before. The enhancements states above enable these brand-new scenarios to be built and integrated with a modern IoT solution. 

The many scenarios enabled by IoT Edge include (but are not limited to) the following: 

• Autonomous Vehicles are able to locally run the Machine Learning models with lower latency to make driving decisions and take actions accordingly in a fast and reliable manner. 
• Airlines are able to process, store, and analyze very large amounts of data, and provide real-time actions, without the need for a fast broadband Internet connection and the latency involved in communications over such a network connection available to airlines. 

• Industrial equipment can be integrated in a way that IoT Edge processing is able to quickly react to changing factory and machinery conditions in order to shutdown or slow down the machinery in an effort to reduce injury or even save the lives of the operators in an automated fashion. This also enables the ability to predict when to shut down the machinery for maintenance before much more expensive damage is done. 
• Medical equipment can be built to eliminate the Network or other components from being external points of failure in critical care scenarios where losing capabilities or incurring greater latency may result in greatly jeopardizing the life of one or multiple patients. 

Some of these scenarios could have been built previously, but the IoT Edge enables the vast resources and capabilities to be more tightly integrated with the local network components of IoT solutions much more closely than was previously possible. This is all done without really compromising on the Cloud capabilities at hand, so you can more easily leverage the cloud, or even add more compute, storage, or analytics power than you could in more traditional local network IoT model. 

IoT Security Architecture 

As with any infrastructure solution, there are always security designs, strategies, components, and best practices. This is no different with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. IoT solutions consist of local devices and networking, as well as cloud-based compute and networking capabilities. Securing all these infrastructures is pretty similar to what is done by many enterprises to fully secure end-user workstations, the local network, and hybrid cloud integration for implementing enterprise identity and application usage scenarios. However, the Internet of Things solutions do have a couple more trust zones and boundaries that you’ll want to keep in mind. 

The trust zones and boundaries of an IoT solution are ways of implementing network segmentation and DMZs to compartmentalize the local network while enhancing the overall security from individual groups of devices all the way up to the cloud. This way communication between different components of an IoT solution is limited to greatly reduce attack surface area if any single component of the solution were to get compromised by hackers or malware. 

There are several trust zones that any well-designed IoT security solution will incorporate: 

• Local Zone 
• Device Zone 
• Field Gateway Zone 
• Cloud Gateway Zone 
• Gateway and Services Zone 
• Remote User Zone 

In addition to the network and connectivity of IoT devices that make up an IoT solution, the individual devices and their source code need to be secured as well. This piece of IoT security is more in the hands of IoT Developers, instead of IoT Administrators. However, innovative operating systems and cloud services like those offered by Microsoft Azure Sphere are built from the ground up to offer the ability to build more highly secured IoT solutions. This is something that the majority of IoT device hardware and platforms have traditionally struggled with but is still achievable with other solutions. 

What is Azure IoT? 

Microsoft Azure includes a number of services, SDKs (software development kits), and other capabilities used for building Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. All these components are collectively referred to as “Azure IoT”. Microsoft’s goal of all these is to allow enterprises the ability to build and deploy secure, scalable IoT solutions more easily. They have been working towards this goal for a number of years now, and have built up a large portfolio of services and capabilities that make Microsoft Azure a leader in the IoT cloud space. 

• Azure IoT Central provides a Software-as-a-Service offering to accelerate the creation of IoT solutions, while reducing the burden and cost of management and development of the IoT solution. 
• Azure IoT Hub is a highly scalable IoT messaging broker that can scale to billions of connected devices. It also provides the ability to manage those devices securely with per-device authentication and authorization. 

• Azure IoT Device Provisioning Service (DPS) provides the ability to provision and manage IoT devices connected to Azure IoT Hub at scale. 
• Azure IoT Edge provides the ability to build and deploy workload capabilities to the edge of the network. This has the benefits of lower latency communication, quicker insights and actions, and offline cloud capabilities implemented at the edge, closer to the IoT devices within the solution. 
• Azure Digital Twins helps build comprehensive models of physical environments including spatial intelligence graphs that model relationships and interactions between people, places, and devices. This enables you to create more intelligent queries and views of your IoT solutions rather than managing and querying disparate IoT devices and sensors. 
• Azure Time Series Insights is a service that offers the ability to analyze IoT and other temporal data to gain real-time insights through rich visualizations and an interactive dashboard. 
• Azure Maps offers geospatial capabilities for building location-aware applications. This service includes APIs and SDKs to add maps and other spatial analytics functionality to an IoT solution. 

• Azure Sphere is a platform for building more highly secured IoT solutions. It provides a secured microcontroller (MCU) platform that incorporates a custom Linux-based operation system (Azure Sphere OS) and the Azure Sphere Security Service (AS3) in the cloud. 

These are the primary services within Microsoft Azure that make up Azure IoT, and they provide IoT specific and/or related capabilities. When building an entire IoT solution using Azure IoT, you will incorporate many other Azure services on the cloud side. These additional services will include database, storage, and compute services. Also, many IoT solutions will also implement real-time event streaming and processing using services like Azure Stream Analytics and Azure Functions, as well as Machine Learning / AI prediction capabilities using Azure Machine Learning. 

Lambda Architecture 

A common design pattern used when building a modern IoT solution (with Azure IoT or otherwise) is the Lambda Architecture pattern. The Lambda Architecture design pattern is a data processing pattern designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) and other Big Data systems that need to process data in near real-time, in addition to data storage and batch processing. Once device events are ingested from thousands (or even millions) of IoT devices, the processing of the data really becomes a Big Data problem to solve, and that’s where the Lambda Architecture comes in. 

At the core of the Lambda Architecture is the idea that when one or more data streams are ingested, the data will be split into two data paths. Each of these paths can receive any subset or even all the data from the input stream(s). These two paths are referred to as the Hot Path and the Cold Path. 

• Hot Path – Send data off for real-time processing and analytics, such as using machine learning to identify patterns, make predictions, and trigger immediate actions and alerts. 
• Cold Path – Send data off for archival storage and future batch processing at a later time. 

Azure IoT Management Tools 

When managing Azure resources, the Azure Portal, Azure CLI, and Azure PowerShell are the usual tools used. These tools all have the ability to help you create and manage Azure IoT resources. 

There are several tools that can be used to create and manage the Azure resources that are used to build and manage a modern IoT solution built and integrated with Microsoft Azure.: 

• Azure Portal provides a graphical management portal interface for manually working with Azure resources. 
• Azure CLI is a cross-platform command-line tool for managing Azure resources from macOS, Windows, and Linux machines. 
• Azure PowerShell provides a suite of PowerShell cmdlets for managing Azure resources from any machine with PowerShell installed. 
• Azure Cloud Shell offers an in-browser experience to easily work with both the Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell command-line tools to manage Azure resources from anywhere. 
• Azure Sphere CLI is a command-line utility that supports the management of Azure Sphere elements, including devices and the Azure Sphere Security Service (AS3).

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At first, having local IoT solution compute power on your network, or at the Edge, does sound like just having servers on-premises. However, IoT Edge Compute is a bit more complicated than that since it takes Cloud Compute capabilities and integrates them with on-premises location and compute. Microsoft Azure IoT Edge enables one to easily manage and deploy IoT solutions that integrate Microsoft Azure cloud services with on-premises compute hardware and services. 

Microsoft Azure IoT Edge consists of the IoT Edge Runtime that gets installed on a computer or device. These devices can run either Windows or Linux operating systems, and they must have Docker installed. The Azure IoT Edge Runtime then utilizes Docker to run IoT Edge Modules on the device with the direction of being told what modules to deploy and run via a connection to Microsoft Azure IoT Hub. 

What Is an Azure IoT Edge Module? 

With Azure IoT Edge, the way that cloud compute capabilities are pushed down to run on edge devices is through the use of IoT Edge Modules. An Edge Module is the smallest unit of compute managed by the IoT Edge Runtime. These modules can contain Azure services such as Azure Stream Analytics, or they can be your domain-specific module code required by your IoT Edge solution. 

The process of developing, building, and deploying IoT Edge modules consists of several logical steps: 

• Write IoT Edge Module – An IoT Edge Module is written using a supported language; like C#, C, or others. (Some modules are prebuilt by Microsoft, such as those for running Azure services on IoT Edge.) 
• Build and Deploy Module to Docker Registry – The Module is built and deployed to a Docker Registry, such as Docker Hub. The IoT Edge Runtime can then be configured to pull the Module image down from the Docker Registry for the module to be deployed to one or more IoT Edge devices. 
• Manage Device and Module Identities in Azure IoT Hub – The IoT Edge Device has a device identity created and managed within Azure IoT Hub (either using manual deployment or auto-deployment via Azure Device Provisioning Service). This device identity will include IoT Edge Module Identities for each of the Edge Modules deployed to the device; each of which contains module configurations. 
• Install and Run IoT Edge Runtime on Device(s) – The IoT Edge Device and the installed IoT Edge Runtime areis configured to connect to the cloud either directly to Azure IoT Hub or via Azure Device Provisioning Service. When the device connects to Azure IoT Hub it will automatically pull down the device identity and any configured IoT Edge Module Identities configured, and then automatically start running the modules as configured. 

These steps of using the Device Identity and Edge Module Identities to manage configuring the Azure IoT Edge Device(s) within Azure IoT Hub provides a mechanism where Azure IoT Edge Devices can be managed remotely. To make maintenance or configuration changes to the Azure IoT Edge Devices, you simply reconfigure the device identity or Edge Module Identities within Azure IoT Hub, and the updates are pushed automatically down to the Edge Devices. Additionally, Edge Devices are authenticated and authorized remotely too, so revoking a device’s access or retiring older devices is just as easy. 

The Disconnected Cloud and Offline Capabilities of Azure IoT Edge 

One of the benefits of using Edge Compute in an IoT solution is to keep the solution functioning during times when the device(s) are disconnected or experiencing conditions of high network latency. Azure IoT Edge allows you to run both custom code and Azure services on the local IoT Edge Device(s) integrated into a larger IoT solution. 

The locally connected, Edge Compute resources built out with Azure IoT Edge have several benefits for any IoT solution: 

• Lower Latency Decisions – With domain logic and even Azure services (like Stream Analytics or Azure Functions) able to run on-premises with an Azure IoT Edge Device, the solution can make decisions and take actions much more quickly with lower latency. The communications are no longer required to go round trip into Azure and back. 
• Offline Capability – The IoT Edge Device can operate offline in scenarios where it may be disconnected from Azure IoT Hub during temporary or even longer-term conditions. 
• Data Synchronization – With offline capabilities of Azure IoT Edge, the IoT Edge Runtime will automatically save all IoT telemetry events on the local device storage, and then transmit that data to Azure IoT Hub when connectivity is restored. The length of time the data is stored on the device (aka Time-to-Live) can be custom-configured for your IoT solution. 
• Lower Bandwidth Usage – Less data and IoT device telemetry need to be sent to the cloud by utilizing Edge Compute to do more processing for an IoT solution. Also, processing the data on-premises utilizing Azure IoT Edge allows for aggregates or summaries of the telemetry data to be communicated to the Azure IoT Edge when all telemetry events do not need to be sent to or stored in the cloud. 

There are many IoT solutions that benefit from all the capabilities of Azure IoT Edge. This is true if the IoT Device directly has sensors sending telemetry to Azure IoT Hub, or even if the IoT Edge Device is deployed as an IoT Gateway connected to multiple other IoT Sensor Devices. 

Industrial IoT scenarios, for example, can benefit greatly from the low latency, offline, and lower bandwidth capabilities. If industrial machinery could break creating thousands of dollars worth of damage, or even causing great bodily harm (or even death!), then being able to make decisions and take action with lower latency is a major benefit.

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Device Overview highlights key information about device identities across your tenant, so you can easily understand the current state and take action if necessary. The main overview helps highlight the total number of non-compliant, stale, and unmanaged devices in your tenant, so you can defend against breach risks. From this blade, you can also get quick access to monitoring for device breakdown by join and OS type, audit log information, and relevant documentation.

To learn more about Device Overview and how you can start taking advantage of this improved visibility today, please read our documentation. Once you’ve had a chance to try the feature, please do not hesitate to share your thoughts here in the comments.

Culled from Microsoft Blogs

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This developer-friendly service helps enhance productivity by reducing the overhead associated with managing a server running MySQL. Flexible Server provides you the flexibility to develop applications using your favorite tools, languages, and frameworks, deploy faster by integrating with Azure services like App Services or AKS, and automate CI/CD tasks using GitHub or Azure DevOps. Developers can also save costs by taking advantage of options like Burstable SKUs, Start/Stop feature, Reserved Instances, and a 12-month free trial with an Azure free account.

Culled from Microsoft Blogs

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