Registry Management, Groups, Queries and Jobs
The device management options are in preview at the moment and they work through a set of APIs. The Device Registry Management API can store both device information – like the firmware version, serial number or the name of the manufacturer – and service information like tags applied by the IoT Hub to different devices. The Device Groups API lets you group devices and control access to them, and if you have a lot of devices the Device Queries API lets you search for them using tags or device properties. The Device Jobs API is what you use to run and monitor updates to your devices.
"Azure IoT Hub device management maintains device properties in the cloud as well as their location in these custom hierarchies. Using these new APIs, users can build visualisations of these custom hierarchies and update devices based on them," George explains.
IoT starter kits
For businesses who don't already have IoT devices they want to manage, or who want to add new kinds of devices, Microsoft is also now offering its own IoT 'starter kits' with Intel Edison, Arduino and Raspberry Pi hardware that's certified to work with Azure IoT services, to simplify getting started with IoT projects.
George doesn't expect businesses to want to build their own IoT hardware, but they do want a quick way of creating prototypes to try out their ideas about IoT services. "We're seeing a lot of enterprises that are starting out with this level of device to see what IoT can do for them and then they quickly move on to more industrial strength devices."
For them, the starter kits are a faster way to get going. "It reduces the time it takes you to get going, because you open it up and a there's guided walkthroughs for how to get everything up and running with Azure. You can make one of these solutions really quickly now, because you don't have to put a lot of thought into which devices to start prototyping with. You can just get the starter kit and you're ready to go," George told techradar pro.
