Benefits of Automation Through Microsoft Azure IoT Suite

The internet of things has grown in popularity as the number of connected devices has increased considerably over the past few years. According to Gartner, the global IoT market is expected to grow to 5.8 billion endpoints by the end of 2020. Having said that, the compound annual growth rate will be 21% as compared to the previous year. The advent of smart home automation technologies has unlocked new business opportunities for IoT application development Services. 

When it comes to IoT app development, a majority of businesses prefer cloud computing services to develop a centrally-managed IoT application. To address the increasing requirements of IoT app development, cloud platforms like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud (GCP) have come forth with their unique serverless offerings. That being said, Microsoft Azure is rightfully considered a leading service provider for cloud-based application development. The Azure IoT Suite enables developers to build, deploy, and launch scalable IoT solutions for varied business requirements.

At Oodles Technologies, we have gained vast experience in cloud-based IoT app development services. Our development team is skilled at using cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP to develop scalable IoT apps with custom features. In this blog post, we enumerate the main benefits of Azure IoT Suite for building enterprise-grade applications with central tracking and analytics capabilities. 

Also read How Startups Can Benefit From AWS IoT Core

An Introduction To Azure IoT Suite

Microsoft Azure is one of the fastest-growing cloud platforms for building IoT-based applications. According to Business Insider, it is the second largest cloud platform for IoT application development after AWS. Azure IoT Suite provides a comprehensive SaaS solution with a set of open-source SDKs to develop, scale, deploy, manage, and run user-centric IoT applications over a serverless cloud architecture.

Azure IoT Service At a Glance

Azure IoT Suite includes several independent cloud-based IoT services to address different types of project requirements. Let’s discuss these services and their significance in cloud-based IoT application development.

Azure IoT Central

Azure IoT Central is a cloud service that lets you connect the new and existing IoT devices to the Azure cloud. Furthermore, it enables developers to build a simple yet effective IoT app with real-time analytics capabilities. IoT central is extremely useful for decision makers who need a simple interface to track the connected devices and gain insights into data.

It provides several built-in templates based on the industry use cases to accelerate the development process and reduce time-to-market. Most importantly, it lets you integrate your IoT app seamlessly with the existing business infrastructure and third-party services. 

Azure IoT Hub

Azure IoT Hub lets you establish a reliable connection between Azure cloud and the IoT devices to facilitate a seamless communication. It is capable of handling billions of connected devices without affecting the cloud infrastructure. 

Developers can use Azure IoT Hub to securely channelize data between devices and establish a smooth two-way communication. It maintains a smooth flow of user commands from backend to the connected devices. At the same time, it ensures security and privacy of various communications through device registration, authentication, and message delivery authentication.

Azure IoT Edge

Azure IoT Edge enables enterprises to extend the capabilities of an IoT system with edge intelligence. The service lets you move some of your IoT data (including analytics and messages) to the edge computing devices. In this way, you can offload operations in the cloud, thereby reducing the bandwidth and overhead costs. It further accelerates the decision-making process and lets you operate offline as well. Above all, it facilitates provisioning and management of edge devices for better user convenience. 

You may also be interested in reading Building and Deploying ML Models On The Google Cloud

Benefits of Azure IoT Platform

Understandably, Azure IoT Suite offers some of the best services to develop, run, and manage IoT applications with better flexibility. Below are the main benefits of automation through Azure IoT Hub.

• Simplified coding interface
• Ready-to-use device templates
• Real-time data analysis and visualization
• Secure authorization and authentication
• Flexible pricing model
• Robust community support
• Easy integration with third-party services

Conclusion

The future of IoT and smart home automation looks bright and promising. With the increasing applications of connected devices and industry use cases, it seems evident that IoT could be a mainstream technology in the near future. At the same time, cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and GCP continue to evolve, bolstering their support for the internet of things. 

Why Choose Oodles Technologies For Cloud-based IoT App Development?

We are a seasoned cloud app development company that specializes in building scalable IoT and smart home applications using the latest tools and technologies. Our development team holistically analyzes your project requirements and formulates effective strategies to build a performance-driven IoT app that streamlines business processes. We have successfully completed full-fledged IoT projects for our clients with a focus on cloud-based automation.

Choosing An Ideal DevOps Tool to Accelerate Development

The amalgamation of the development and operations (DevOps) team has enabled businesses to improve their software development life cycle(SDLC). Selecting the right DevOps tool maximizes the collaboration and communication between the development and operations teams. 

Here are some best DevOps tools we use to support automation and collaboration between development and operations team. 

1. Gradel: Introduced in 2009, Gradel enables a software developer to write code in Java, Python, C++, and other languages. 

Popular Features: 

• Popular IDEs like Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, and Netbeans support Gradel 
• Google chose Gradel as an official build tool for Android Studio
• Uses Groovy-based DSL to describe builds
• Availability of Kotlin-based DSL enables mobile app developers to write build scripts in Kotlin
• Uses Maven’s repository format, so dependency management is similar for developers with prior Maven experience
• Supports import of Ant builds
• Gradle’s incremental builds save compilation time
• 100 times faster than Maven 

2. Git: The next on the popularity list is Git, used widely across the software development industry. 

Popular Features

• Distributed SCM(Source Code Management) Tool suitable for open source contributors and remote teams
• Enables tracking of mobile app development work
• Facilitates switching from one source code to the other

To Integrate Git with DevOps workflow, businesses have to host repositories to enable the teams to accelerate software development. GitHub and Bitbucket are the two best GiT repositories available with easy integrations. 

  

GitHub- Access available for public repositories for free. Suitable to accomplish Git projects. 

Bitbucket- Available with free unlimited private repositories for small teams 

3. Jenkins- A leading DevOps automation tool designed to accelerate SDLC. 

Popular features

• CI/CD server enables developers to automate different stages of the delivery pipeline. 
• Availability of more than 1000 plugins support integration with different DevOps tools including Docker and Puppet
• Easy to customize and set up CI/CD pipeline based on business-specific requirements
• Easy to get started with and performs exceptionally great on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux
• Easy to install with Docker
• Easy to set and configure through a web interface
• Iterates and deploys new codes quickly
• Facilitates measurement of each step of the development pipeline

4. Bamboo- The Choice of professional teams for continuous integration, deployment, and delivery and works similar to Jenkins.  

Popular Features:

• An open-source tool facilitates developers to automate different stages of the delivery pipeline including builds and deployment 
• Easy to use pre-built functionalities and 100+ plugins support integration with different DevOps tools 
• Facilitates seamless integration with Jira and Bitbucket
• Available with intuitive UI, tooltips, auto-completion, and other handy features.
• Provides access to built-in Git and Mercurial branching workflows and test environments.

5. Docker- Launched in 2013, Docker has made containerization popular in the tech world. 

Popular Features

• Operating System and Platform Independent
• Automates deployment of apps and makes distributed development possible 
• Isolates apps into separate containers, making them secure and portable
• Docker containers can be used instead of virtual machines like VirtualBox.
• Dependencies can be packed within the app’s container and shipped as an independent unit to run apps on different platforms 
• Integrated seamlessly with Bamboo and Jenkins to improve delivery workflows
• Ideal for cloud computing- Added by AWS and Google Cloud 

6. Kubernetes- Released in 2015 by Google Engineers, Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform to automate deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.  

Popular Features

• Facilitates grouping of containers into logical units
• A logical step towards finding a solution to development complexities and scaling resources
• Enables developers to automate the process of managing hundreds of containers.
• Deployed to a cluster of computers to eliminate tying with containerized apps 
• Automates the distribution and scheduling of containers across the whole cluster
• Kubernetes cluster has a master and several worker nodes. The master node executes developers' pre-defined rules and deploys containers to the worker nodes. 
• Evenly Redistributes the containers when the worker node is down. 

7. Puppet Enterprise- A cross-platform configuration management platform.

Popular Features 

• Automates infrastructure management to accelerate the delivery of software 
• Facilitates the management of infrastructure as code. 
• Provides an additional open-source tool to accomplish small projects
• Puppet Enterprise extra features like Real-time reports, Role-based access control, and Node management support large enterprises 
• Manages multiple teams and thousands of resources
• With more than 5000 modules, Puppet integrates flawlessly with other DevOps tools

8. Ansible- a Configuration management tool that works similar to Chef and Puppet. 

Popular Features 

• Simple and easy to use
• Configures infrastructure and automates deployment
• Infrastructure as Code approach is same as Puppet
• Uses the super simple YAML syntax to define tasks 
• Agentless architecture since no daemons or agents run in the background
• secure and lightweight solution for configuration management automation
• several modules integrate flawlessly with other DevOps tools 

Choosing a right DevOps tool requires testing and experimentation. It usually takes more time to set up and configure open-source tools. Commercial DevOps tools come with free trials to enable developers test and evaluate the right one.

Planning to deploy a DevOps tool that supports automation and collaboration between teams? We are an established DevOps consulting service company. Click this link to talk to our experts today!

5 Reasons to Move Your ERP To Cloud

“I don’t need a hard disk in my computer if I can get to the server faster, carrying around these non connected computers is byzantine by comparison.” — Steve Jobs

Many companies are still worried about whether they should move their ERP to the cloud or not. Well, having a virtual office can prove to be really beneficial for every type of organization, hence moving your ERP to cloud is always a great idea.

Businesses require flexibility, scalability, and most importantly security and all of these are provided by the cloud at an affordable price. IT departments are always on the lookout for time and money saving software, therefore it can be a smart move if companies switch to cloud.

According to a survey conducted by the market research department :

32% of the companies want to reduce the maintenance cost.
28% of the companies want more flexibility in accessing the information.
25% of the companies want to streamline their work process.
22% of the companies want more affordable alternatives.

But if you are still not convinced and confused about whether moving from ERP to cloud is an immediate need or not, then have a look at few of the compelling reasons:

Enhanced Security
Every organization, especially small and medium, requires additional security and the cloud systems are perfect for providing the safe and secure environment. The cloud system offers secure gateways for data management so the data does not get leaked to a wrong person.

These cloud-based ERPs are the pre-built templates that fulfill the international as well as domestic standards. The improved security and reduced cost might force you to shift from ERP to cloud-based ERPs now.

Reduced Cost
Traditional ERP system required a huge investment as routers, switches, computers along with few unexpected costs were very expensive. Well, all these costs can be completely eliminated with the cloud-based ERP system. The cloud system follows the rule of, “pay as you go” which means it can put an end to all the initial capital costs.

Not only the hardware costs, cloud ERP can eradicate the server maintenance cost which decreases the workload of the IT department. This means the cloud-based ERP can save a lot of working hours of your company.

Remote access
The Cloud-based ERP platforms can be accessed from any remote location with an ease which means it can be accessed securely from any browser. This is great if an employee is out of office and still needs to access some data, cloud ERP just makes it easy. It makes the employees work easy and comfortable whereas the traditional ERP is time-consuming and less productive. Also, cloud-based ERP can eliminate the corruption and security breaches.

Also Read: Deep Insights Into Cloud-Based ERP Applications

Faster Innovation:
The cloud-based ERP systems are much more flexible than the traditional ERP. Not only that, but cloud ERP encourages the innovation as well. It further helps in making a faster clone of the development and production process. This makes it easy for doing research and innovations without disturbing the company’s operation.

Data Recovery: 
In tradition ERP system, there is always a risk of losing data completely. The Cloud ERP removes this problem as ERP clouds have redundancy which means the data is placed in two places so if it is lost from one position then we have data at another place. The data in the cloud ERP can be survived in any situation.

CONCLUSION:
Cloud-based ERP system helps companies to gain access to robust collaboration tools which helps them to identify any problem instantly and accurately. The Cloud-based ERP solutions can help your business to evolve completely and at an affordable price. In a nutshell, a cloud-based ERP can generate better returns, reduce cost, increase flexibility and security. These are the few reasons which endorse the benefits of moving your traditional ERP to the cloud-based ERP system.

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