What is Azure IoT Hub ?

Pre-requisite Knowledge

Before we start with the understanding of Azure IoT Hub, we should know-

1. Azure Cloud
2. The generic term IoT (Internet of Things)

Introduction of Azure IoT Hub

Okay, so let’s get started with the actual topic, i.e. Azure IoT Hub, so we’ll first understand that was is it and then why one should use it.

Azure IoT Hub is a service hosted in Azure (a cloud platform by Microsoft) which basically manages the IoT devices registered with it by the developers. As it is a Hub, hence it also acts as a Central unit for communication between the devices/ IoT itself.

So in simple tern, it can be like a central platform that helps manage the connected devices and also moderates in the communication between the devices as well. So whenever there is a question of authorization, like who’s the boss devices or the IoT Hub, then it is the IoT hub only.

Feature of Azure IoT Hub:

• It is meant for a far high number of devices, so it can be scaled to millions of devices.
• It supports millions of events per second for IoT tasks.
• There are always various pricing tiers as per the need of an individual to the Business entity.
• Supports bi-directional mode of communication.
• Can be easily integrated with various Azure services like:
  • Azure Event Grid
  • Azure Logic Apps
  • Azure Machine Learning
  • Azure Stream Analytics
• Language Support for Azure IoT SDKs:
  • C
  • C#
  • Java
  • Python
  • JS

If you’ve heard about Event Hub, then there might be a question that if we have Events Hub, then why we need Azure IoT Hub?

Well, the answer is simply given by Microsoft, by the below table extracted from here:

Conclusion - In this article, we have learned about:

1. Azure IoT Hub
2. How to get started with it

Soon, we’ll see how we can actually set up a development environment for Azure IoT Edge. Stay tuned