Cloud Platforms

Cloud IoT means the collection of managed and platform services across edge and cloud that connect, monitor, and control billions of IoT assets.

IoT and Cloud Platforms

Cloud platforms bring together the capabilities of IoT devices and cloud computing. They are also referred to by other terms like cloud service IoT platforms.

We use cloud platforms for IoT because, it allows us to easily connect, store, and manage IoT devices and data. Cloud platforms' main focus is to make IoT applications easy and fast to build. Cloud applications are also easy to scale to big audiences if needed.

Different Cloud Platforms

Thingworx

Thingworx

One of the leading IIoT platforms. Provides easy connectivity for devices.

Pros:

  • Easy web design
  • Easy to manage
  • Simple connectivity solutions

Cons:

  • Difficult to use with custom programs
  • Hard to manage complex systems
  • Limitation to install edge program on a custom platform

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure

Provides multiple services to create IoT solutions. It has pre-built connected solutions.

Pros:

  • Offers third-party services
  • Scalable
  • High availability

Cons:

  • Requires a lot of management
  • Expensive
  • No bug support

IBM Watson

IBM Watson

A powerful platform, that provides easy sample apps and interfaces for IoT services. It is easy to try out Watson's samples to see how it works. This makes it stand out from the other platforms.

Pros:

  • Process untapped data
  • Handle huge quantities of data
  • Great customer service

Cons:

  • Needs a lot of maintenance
  • High switching cost

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 175 fully-featured services from data centers globally.

Pros:

  • Provides the most services (175+)
  • The most popular of cloud services publicly
  • More open-source tools integration

Cons:

  • Difficult to use
  • Billing can be confusing
  • Amazon’s EC2 Limits

Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform (GCP), offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, file storage, and YouTube.

Pros:

  • Access to other Google services, like YouTube
  • Pricing
  • Simplicity

Cons:

  • Least amount of data centers globally
  • Least amount of services to offer
  • Poor documentation

There are many different Cloud Platforms to choose from and everyone of them has their own positives and drawbacks.

The Three Titans

Watch the video below about the three of the biggest competitors in the cloud platform markets and go through the knowledge check.

IBM Watson Setup

We choose to use IBM Watson for our IoT projects. It's a robust and popular platform with a lot of nice features. Watson offers free academic licenses for students and is easy to use.

In the video below you can find this information:

  1. How to create IBM Watson account
  2. How to upgrade your IBM account to student license
  3. IBM Watson introduction

How to Create IBM Watson Account

TEHTÄVÄ

In the next lesson, you will delve deeper into the IBM Watson platform. Good luck!