How is Microsoft Taking the Lead with Large Scale IoT?
The Opportunity
IoT is growing and it’s growing fast. Governments worldwide are increasingly supporting funding for Smart Cities, hoping to use data and connected devices to improve sustainability and the quality of life for their people. The EU have a number of initiatives and the UK government launched Future Cities Catapult, which is always promoting opportunities and offering support for innovative ideas.
The Problem
In 2017 there was an estimated 8.4 billion connected devices and this number is expected to grow to over 20 billion by 2020. Since the rise of IoT, botnet attacks involving IoT devices have become a very real threat, such as the 2016 Mirai botnet attack, which controlled over 100,000 IoT devices. Last year, there was a reported 91% increase in DDOS attacks thanks to IoT devices.
The security of IoT devices is important not just for individuals, but for society as a whole.
Securing our connected devices is becoming increasingly important and tech companies are working on solving the vulnerabilities that exist in these devices.
At the same time, the expected growth of IoT devices in the next 2 years alone means that managing these devices and the data being produced is becoming a greater problem.
A Solution?
In 2017, Microsoft unleashed Project Sopris, challenging over 150 hackers to break into their Project Sopris board to win bug bounties. This led to the publication of “The Seven Properties of Highly Secured Devices”. There was a heavy emphasis on securing hardware from the silicon up, creating something more than the typical ‘single-line-of-defence’ present on most IoT devices that often rely on default usernames and passwords.
And that’s where we stand now in 2018. Microsoft announced a couple months ago that they were investing $5billion in IoT to solve the problems with security and scalability and here’s what they’ve been doing…
Introducing Azure Sphere
Microsoft announced Azure Sphere in April 2018. A full stack solution to IoT that was built with security as a foundation. When you read through the “Seven Properties of Highly Secured Devices”, it’s not hard to see the influence that Project Sopris has had on Azure Sphere. We see that emphasis on securing the hardware, with continuous updates to software, to create multiple layers of defence repeating itself in Azure Sphere.
There are three aspects to Azure Sphere, with built-in security in the silicon board, OS, and Cloud services. Some of the cool features:
- Azure Sphere devices don’t rely on passwords because authentication is built into the hardware
- They can detect emerging threats
- Devices continually update their security software.
That’s what makes it stand out from what other large companies are producing in the IoT arena.
Azure Sphere is available for pre-order now but won’t be released until September 2018.
IoT Central
I wrote an article a couple weeks ago about the efforts Microsoft have put in to making Machine Learning easy to pick up, and IoT is no different. Recognising the massive operational costs that are associated with getting an IoT solution up and running, Microsoft have created a SaaS solution to IoT.
IoT Solutions without the hassle
Azure IoT Central was designed to make managing IoT devices simple and require as little cloud knowledge as possible.
IoT Central promises easy deployment without expertise, best-in-class security, and an easy UI to monitor, control, and connect your devices.
This is available on Azure now — check out the free trial here.
Remember Kinect?
No, not that kind of Kinect…
Sometimes great technology can fool us into thinking they’re just toys.
Kinect is back and better than before with Project Kinect for Azure. Combining IoT with AI to create bots and drones with spatial understanding for automated navigation. This technology is based on Holoportation research, applying real-time 3D capture and transmission to enable continuous communications.
This technology is still in the research phase right now but it looks like they’re promoting use cases in healthcare, security, and manufacturing.
Should You Invest in IoT?
The future is looking more and more connected — it’s great to see companies like Microsoft tackling the problems that come with this. There’s a growing interest in IoT, and thanks to the efforts of the tech giants like Microsoft, it’s getting easier to innovate and create new IoT products without having to worry too much about things like security and scalability.
It’s now easier than ever before to try out that great IoT idea you had, and with the introduction of Azure Sphere it’ll be more secure too.
