Microsoft announces Azure IoT Edge generally available

Microsoft announced that its Azure IoT Edge service is now generally available (GA) globally. Azure IoT Edge will help Microsoft to enable growing list of enterprise customers to bring their edge solutions to production.

With the help of robust capabilities on Azure IoT Edge, it is easy to develop and deploy intelligence to the edge. These robust updates position Azure IoT Edge as a true end-to-end solution for enterprise-grade edge deployments. Azure IoT Edge brings cloud intelligence to edge devices through the use of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services such as machine learning, stream analytics, SQL Server databases etc. and custom logic local to cross-platform devices.

Microsoft also stated that IoT Edge is now open source and available on GitHub enabling developers greater amount of flexibility and control of their edge solutions. The newly introduced Device Provisioning Service enables provisioning of tens of thousands of devices with zero touch. The new Security Manager for Azure IoT Edge acts as a well-bounded security core for protecting the IoT Edge device and all its components by abstracting the secure silicon hardware. 

Visual Studio developers will be able to code, test and debug Azure IoT Edge module and use Visual Studio Team Services to collaborate with other contributors. Azure IoT Edge also supports the open-source Moby container management system.

Azure Certified for IoT program now also certifies core edge functionalities such as device management and security for certified IoT edge hardware.

Developers will able to access pre-built edge modules at Azure Marketplace to accelerate edge solution development. Azure IoT Edge supports C#, C, Node.js, Python, and Java giving developers healthy choice for their development.

Partner Director, Azure Internet of Things, Sam George said,  "Since we introduced Azure IoT Edge just over a year ago, we have seen many examples of the real-world impact from the factory floor to the farm to run cloud intelligence directly on IoT devices. Now devices can act immediately on real-time data—whether it be recognizing a crack in a pipe from an aerial view or predicting equipment failure before it happens. As we evolve toward a world of ubiquitous computing, the design of the IoT solution spanning hardware, edge, and cloud must be consistent and secure to drive real impact. Today, we are excited to announce Azure IoT Edge is now generally available (GA) globally – enabling our growing list of enterprise customers to bring their edge solutions to production."