Microsoft today announced that Azure IoT Edge is exiting preview, just a year after it was initially launched. Now generally available, Azure IoT Edge is also going open source and picking up some improvements for enterprise users to check out.
From Microsoft:
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.
In terms of enhancements, Microsoft says Azure IoT Edge now supports the open-source Moby container management system and the exosystem of certified hardware is expanding to certify additional functionalities like device management and security. As of this release, IoT Edge is now open source and available on Github, which Microsoft recently acquired to the tune of $7.5 billion.
IoT Edge has also picked up support for Device Provisioning Service and Automatic Device Management (ADM). Device Provisioning Service allows for devices to be automatically and securely provisioned, while ADM allows for deployment of IoT Edge modules to devices based on metadata.
Finally, the developer experience is seeing some love as well with broad programming language support and support for developing, coding, debugging, and deploying directly from VSCode.
The news of Azure IoT Edge's general availability comes as Microsoft is expanding Azure to two new regions in China.
Cloud computing and the intelligent edge are two important focal points for Microsoft going forward. Earlier this year, the company announced a major reorganization of its internal teams, largely focused on AI and edge computing. IoT devices, along with their security and management, stand to play a larger role in Microsoft's efforts going forward.
