AWS IoT: All You Need to Know About Using Amazon Web Services for IoT Solutions

If you want to focus on your IoT application logic and forgo worrying about its server-side, Cloud as a Service is your best option. And Amazon Web Services, with its AWS IoT service collection, is, by far, the most popular offering for IoT solutions on the market.

According to Eclipse Foundation’s 2022 IoT Developer Survey, Amazon dominates the IoT cloud backend market. AWS IoT is used by over a third of serverless IoT projects (36%) — well ahead of its main competitors, Microsoft Azure (18%) and Google Cloud Platform (16%).

We at Wellnuts are no strangers to working with Amazon Web Services during IoT development. We’ve turned to AWS multiple times in developing IoT solutions of varying complexity.

Today, let us share our expertise with you and break down:

• What AWS IoT means
• What services AWS IoT ecosystem includes
• How AWS IoT services are applied in practice

What is AWS IoT, Exactly?

When developers and business owners talk about AWS IoT, they talk about Amazon’s set of services and software components for IoT devices. These services allow IoT solutions to use the AWS cloud computing infrastructure.

In other words, if you use AWS IoT services, you offload managing servers’ hardware and software to Amazon. In exchange, you pay a subscription fee, depending on the resources your application uses. You can try some AWS IoT services for free as long as you stay within the corresponding tier.

3 Main Benefits of AWS IoT

Why is Amazon ahead of other cloud computing providers for IoT solutions? Here are three main reasons behind its leadership in the industry:

• Unparalleled data center performance that translates into high processing speeds and low latency
• Ready-to-use security, analytics, and other IoT modules that significantly reduce development time
• A variety of services and components to fit virtually any needs, from managing robot fleets to creating smart home appliances

10 Major Services Offered by the AWS IoT Platform

At the moment, 14 services comprise the AWS IoT ecosystem. Amazon groups them into three categories based on their purpose:

• Device software
• Control and connectivity services
• Analytics components

Let’s review some of them.

Device Software

These three pieces of software operate on the device level, allowing you to connect and manage them at the edge.

FreeRTOS

FreeRTOS isn’t exactly an AWS IoT service. Instead, it’s a full-fledged real-time operating system for IoT devices (microcontrollers and small microprocessors), regardless of their cloud infrastructure. FreeRTOS is open-source and distributed free of charge under the MIT license.

AWS IoT ExpressLink

ExpressLink is a collection of hardware modules that allow AWS IoT devices to connect to the cloud securely. These modules can take on networking and cryptography tasks, among others. They also allow you to monitor your device fleet and dispatch security updates.

AWS IoT Greengrass

Greengrass components bring certain cloud-level processes and logic to the edge devices. They’ll help you greatly if your IoT fleet has to function with an intermittent internet connection.

Connectivity & Control Services

These components are everything you need to manage and secure your AWS IoT applications from the cloud.

AWS IoT Core

AWS IoT Core is exactly what it’s called — a core service that connects your devices to the AWS cloud infrastructure. Core supports four communication protocols:

• MQTT
• HTTPS
• MQTT over WSS
• LoRaWAN

AWS IoT Device Management

This service is your one-stop shop for managing your device fleet, including peripheral devices. With it, you can register new devices, organize your fleet into groups, dispatch over-the-air updates, and monitor the devices’ performance.

AWS IoT Device Defender

Device Defender is the ultimate AWS IoT security module. It contains everything you may need to protect your application and its data. Device Defender includes computer security auditing, detecting malicious behavior, quarantining certain devices, and more.

AWS IoT FleetWise

A must-use for IoT vehicles, FleetWise components can replace a custom data collection system. They also include modules for analyzing the collected data for relevance and assessing vehicle health.

Analytics Services

The following services will speed up and enhance data processing in your AWS IoT solution.

AWS IoT Analytics

AWS IoT Analytics services help you make sense of the unstructured data collected by IoT devices. They can automate filtering, transforming, enriching, and analyzing this data with pre-built Analytics components.

AWS IoT Events

To detect and respond to particular events, your application will need AWS IoT events services. They allow scripting the event logic and if-then-else algorithms of any complexity.

AWS IoT SiteWise

If you plan to use AWS IoT for an industrial solution, SiteWise is the service for you. Thanks to it, you won’t need any additional software to develop and process data from industrial equipment.

3 Ways You Can Use Amazon Web Service for IoT Solutions

Looking for AWS IoT use cases to better understand its value? Let’s break down three major AWS IoT application cases by the type of solution.

Industrial Solutions

Be it for manufacturing, agriculture, energy, or transportation companies, AWS industrial IoT services power:

• Forecasting the product quality and signaling potential quality issues
• Monitoring asset condition and predicting when maintenance is due
• Optimizing industrial processes for increased performance and uptime

As a result, companies cut down costs across the board and improve the site’s productivity.

Cases in point: Deutsche Bahn, Volkswagen Group, Pentair.

Connected Home Solutions

Smart home companies no longer need to develop every single component from scratch — nor do they have to manage all the server-side operations. Thanks to AWS IoT cloud computing services, they can benefit from:

• Data collection and analysis, as well as event detection and response automation
• Integration with other Amazon services, including Alexa smart home system
• Local computing for low-latency operations
• Prompt application scalability

Cases in point: Blueair, Centrica, Wyze.

Connected Mobility Solutions

AWS IoT services can also collect and process vehicle telemetry data. Here’s how they benefit connected vehicle manufacturers:

• Reduced development and operational costs improve ROI.
• Advanced AI/ML tools allow for complex pattern recognition.
• In-built security services improve data protection.

Cases in point: Toyota, BMW, Honda.

3 Examples of AWS IoT Projects

If you’re looking for an AWS IoT case study, here’s how United Airlines, Skoda, and Moderna leveraged AWS Internet of Things services to improve their products’ quality and ROI.

United Airlines

This airline used AWS IoT to make an intelligent airport project a reality. The airport’s IoT system encompasses over 20,000 sensors and handles 28 GB of data every minute. Thanks to its processing speed and real-time pattern recognition, United Airlines saved $120 million and 1.3 million working hours.

Skoda

Skoda’s key objective was to predict and prevent production downtime. And that’s exactly what it achieved with AWS-powered MAGIC EYE. This system can recognize 14 defect types through real-time image analytics and detect hundreds of scenarios.

Moderna

Moderna is a biotechnology company that turned to AWS IoT to develop its smart manufacturing and supply chain management system. In combination with AI/ML and data analytics, this system now allows Moderna to run a highly efficient interconnected manufactured facility.

Let Us Help You Harness the Power of AWS IoT

Amazon’s AWS IoT is a whole ecosystem of services that let IoT application run in the cloud. They help make production lines more efficient, connected homes — more integrated, and connected vehicles — more intelligent.

However, introducing AWS IoT services into a project still requires time, effort, and, most importantly, expertise.

Luckily, Wellnuts has a long history of working with AWS and IoT. Thanks to it, our team knows the ins and outs of harnessing AWS IoT services’ power.

So, if you need a hand with your AWS IoT project, our developers would be a great match to help you out. Drop us a line to tell us about your project and how we can be of service — and we’ll be at your disposal.

Ready to talk? Contact us: ask@wellnutscorp.com