Difference between Azure IoT and Azure IoT Edge and when to use those services .

Question

Hello People,

I'm new to Azure IoT Hub services and I'm currently working on authenticating a Raspberry Pi device with my Azure IoT Hub to ingest telemetry data from sensors. I'm a bit confused about when to use Azure IoT Device option and Azure IoT Edge device option. Can someone please help me understand the differences between these options? Specifically, I'm looking for insights into their unique features related to device authentication. Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Warm regards.

Sheneoy

Answer 1

Hi Sheneoy,

Hope so you are doing good !!!

Azure IoT Device service is designed for communication between a single device and the Azure cloud. It allows seamless device registration, monitoring, and efficient management. To ensure the highest level of security during communication, Azure IoT Device employs X509 certificates, providing a robust and secure method for device authentication to the Azure cloud.

In contrast, Azure IoT Edge extends Azure IoT Hub's capabilities to edge devices. It is best suited for scenarios where local data processing on the device is essential, minimizing both bandwidth usage and latency. Azure IoT Edge facilitates the creation of custom modules tailored to the specific requirements of your projects. These modules can encompass custom code, Azure services, or third-party solutions. They operate alongside IoT Edge runtime, enabling on-device data processing before transmitting it to Azure IoT Hub. The authentication mechanisms for these modules are adaptable, catering to the unique needs of your IoT applications.

I also mentioning the link below to know better about Azure IoT services like Azure IoT Device and Azure IoT Edge , so kindly check it as well .

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/browse/?products=azure-iot&terms=azure%20iot%20device

I trust this refined explanation clarifies the disparities between Azure IoT Device and Azure IoT Edge concerning device authentication. If you have any further inquiries or require additional assistance, please don't hesitate to ask!

If my answer solved your query , kindly do "accept answer".

Thank you ....

Answer 2

Hello @Sheneoy TechEnthusiast ,

welcome to this moderated Azure community forum.

The Azure IoT Hub supports two kinds of device registrations:

• IoT devices (read like 'direct internet-connected' devices)
• Edge devices (read like 'devices on the edge of the local network with a secure connection to the cloud, managing data coming from the local network')

IoT Devices normally run some software (written with one of the device SDKs or running plain MQTT) so you need to update the software by accessing the devices directly (loading a new application of new firmware) or using the Azure Device Update service.

But sometimes (eg. in factories) devices or sensors or databases expose telemetry but these cannot be connected to the internet directly.

In that case, Having an edge device in the middle is perfect.

An Azure IoT Edge device is normally an (industrial) PC, or a VM, or even a Raspberry Pi, running Linux (or Windows if supported by the hardware.

On the Edge device operating system, a Docker runtime is installed (Open source Moby) and secured by the Azure IoT Edge runtime.

From the IoT Hub, you deploy one or more docker containers with the logic to retrieve data from the local sensors, devices, databases, etc. The messages are filtered, transformed, aggregated, and sent to the cloud if needed or changed into local actions with very low latency.

This even works without a live internet connection, because messages bound for the IoT Hub are stored locally until the broken connection is repaired.

The interesting part is that your local logic can be updated by deploying newer docker containers. There is even a 'layered deployment' solution for deploying at scale.

Another plus is that data is only sent to the cloud via that edge device so network firewall access is much better managable.

We use Edge a lot for customer solutions. It gives us flexibility and scale. It only comes with heavier requirements of the edge device.

Check out this free training about Azure IoT Edge. It's part of this collection of Azure IoT training.

---

This answer is written by a human. If the response helped, do "Accept Answer". If it doesn't work, please let us know the progress. All community members with similar issues will benefit by doing so. Your contribution is highly appreciated.