AWS Adds New IoT Core Platform Analytics Capabilities, Security Services

AWS on Wednesday announced several new features to strengthen its AWS IoT Core platform’s security, analytics and management capabilities.

The services announced at the AWS re: Invent conference, including AWS IoT Device Management, AWS IoT Analytics and AWS IoT Device Defender, help customers get started easily with IoT, rapidly onboard and easily manage fleets of connected devices, enforce security policies and analyze data at scale.

’These new AWS IoT services will allow customers to simply and quickly operationalize, secure, and scale entire fleets of devices, and then act on the large volumes of data they generate with new analytics capabilities specifically designed for IoT,’ said Dirk Didascalou, VP of AWS’ IoT business, in a statement.

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On the security front, AWS announced IoT Device Defender, a new service coming in the first half of 2018, which continuously audits security policies related to fleets of connected devices and alerts customers when non-compliant devices are detected. AWS also released IoT Device Management, available today, which helps customers easily onboard, monitor and manage IoT devices throughout the lifecycle – from setup to software updates.

AWS also announced IoT Analytics, a service currently available in preview, which processes, stores and analyzes IoT device data at scale so that customers can understand device performance and predict device failure.

Beyond analytics, AWS announced Amazon FreeRTOS, an open source operating system that extends the functionality of AWS IoT to devices with very low computing power, such as light bulbs, smoke detectors, and conveyor belts.

AWS also bolstered its capabilities for IoT edge applications with the launch of Greengrass ML Inference, a new feature of AWS’ Greengrass edge service that lets application developers add machine learning to their devices, without requiring special machine learning skills.

With AWS Greengrass ML Inference, available currently in preview, devices can run machine learning models to perform inference locally, get results, and then make smart decisions quickly, even when they’re not connected.

Scott Udell, vice president of IoT solutions at Boston-based Cloud Technology Partners, an HPE company, said that AWS' focus on the edge could only help the company as it strengthens its IoT platform capabilities.

’A huge portion of the conference has been dedicated to machine learning and AI, and IoT once again is looming very large,’ he said. ’They recognized the importance of the edge, as well as analytics, device management and security.’