Google recently announced an Internet of Things (IoT) addition to the suite of services available on the Google Cloud Platform: Google Cloud IoT Core. This new device connection and management service, which was revealed in a blog post by Google Cloud Product Manager Indranil Chakraborty, is currently in a private beta phase, with no word yet on its public release.
According to Chakraborty, the Google Cloud IoT Core has been designed to “[remove] risk, complexity and data silos from the device monitoring and management process.” Of course, as regular readers will recognize, this is essentially the same promise offered by every other IoT device management platform. So, what sets Cloud IoT Core apart from those platforms? Chakraborty lists four key benefits:
- Auto-managed infrastructure: With Google taking care of all the infrastructure deployment and scaling in a pay-as-you-go model, users can focus on their IoT applications instead of back-end details.
- Analytic services: As part of the Google Cloud Platform, the Cloud IoT Core can natively integrate with other Google Cloud services for advanced data analytics.
- Built-in security: All device data is protected with industry-standard security protocols. In addition, as with analytic services, Cloud IoT Core can natively integrate with other Google Cloud security services for finer control.
- Easy configuration: Millions of IoT devices can be quickly registered and connected to the Cloud IoT Core service using the MQTT protocol. Additionally, Android Things devices support automatic firmware updates.
“[Google Cloud IoT Core] offers you the ability to more securely connect and manage all your devices as a single global system,” wrote Chakraborty. “Through a single pane of glass, you can ingest data generated by all those devices into a responsive data pipeline—and, when combined with other Cloud IoT services, analyze and react to that data in real time.”
Chakraborty gives several examples of industries that stand to benefit from the Cloud IoT Core, including utilities, oil and gas, and transportation. From the latter industry, Jose L. Ugia of Noa Technologies spoke highly of the new Google Cloud service.
"With Google Cloud IoT Core, we have been able to connect large fleets of bicycles to the cloud and quickly build a smart transportation fleet management tool that provides operators with a real-time view of bicycle utilization, distribution and performance metrics, and it forecasts demand for our customers," said Ugia.
To request access to the private beta, visit the IoT Core landing page. To learn more about Cloud platforms for the IoT, read What to Look for in an Industrial Internet of Things Cloud Platform.