Microsoft has launched, at its Build developer conference in Seattle, Microsoft IoT Plug and Play for its Azure cloud service saying it offers an open modelling language that enables users to connect IoT devices to the cloud seamlessly.
The executive vice president of Microsoft Azure, Jason Zander, told a press conference in Sydney ahead of Build: “IoT Plug and Play is an open model that allows the things themselves to describe what they are capable of their models and their capabilities.
“So rather than having to write a bunch of custom code to go figure out how to extract that data the Plug and Play ecosystem allows me to just drag and drop those onto a surface area and it lights up with the data and the content and you can start scaling it out. … We will get into more and more areas where people can leverage the power of IoT without having to do a significant amount of deep coding.”
According to a blog post from Julia White corporate vice president, Microsoft Azure, “developers can connect IoT devices to the cloud without having to write a single line of embedded code. IoT Plug and Play also enables device manufactures to build smarter IoT devices that just work with the cloud.”
White’s blog contains the logos of 17 companies described as partners in the IoT Plug and Play ecosystem, and White wrote: “The first wave [of partners] includes dozens of devices from partners such as Compal, Kyocera, and STMicroelectronics.”
‘Dozens’ is strictly accurate, but misleading. Microsoft has provided an online list of all devices certified IoT Plug and Play. However, it presently lists just 24 devices.
Twilio offers two-way integration to Azure IoT
Twilio is not on that list but separately announced integration with Azure IoT as part of Microsoft’s IoT Plug and Play connectivity.
It said this integration would enable IoT developers to sync devices to their Azure cloud from the Twilio Console, establishing trust as soon as the device comes online.
That functionality is part of the newly announced Trust Onboard, billed as a feature for Twilio’s IoT SIMs that enables developers to identify and authenticate cellular connected devices against cloud services.
Twilio says Trust Onboard provides a unique identity to an IoT device via preloaded X.509 certificates, enabling a developer to authenticate against any cloud service.
