Merge pull request #101384 from dominicbetts/central-fundamentals

Add solutions options article

Author: shawnmariejones

articles/iot-fundamentals/iot-introduction.md

@@ -1,128 +1,78 @@
 ---
 title: Introduction to the Azure Internet of Things (IoT)
 description: Introduction explaining the fundamentals of Azure IoT and the IoT services, including examples that help illustrate the use of IoT.
-author: robinsh
+author: dominicbetts
 ms.service: iot-fundamentals
 services: iot-fundamentals
 ms.topic: overview
-ms.date: 10/11/2018
-ms.author: robinsh
+ms.date: 01/15/2020
+ms.author: dobett
 #Customer intent: As a newcomer to IoT, I want to understand what IoT is, what services are available, and examples of business cases so I can figure out where to start.
 ---
 
 # What is Azure Internet of Things (IoT)?
 
-The Azure Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of Microsoft-managed cloud services that connect, monitor, and control billions of IoT assets. In simpler terms, an IoT solution is made up of one or more IoT devices and one or more back-end services running in the cloud that communicate with each other. 
+The Azure Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of Microsoft-managed cloud services that connect, monitor, and control billions of IoT assets. In simpler terms, an IoT solution is made up of one or more IoT devices that communicate with one or more back-end services hosted in the cloud. 
 
-This article discusses the basics of IoT, talks about use cases, and briefly explains the eight separate services available. By understanding what's available, you can figure out what you want to look at more closely to help design your scenario.
+## IoT devices
 
-## Introduction
+An IoT device is typically made up of a circuit board with sensors attached that use WiFi to connect to the internet. For example:
 
-The main parts of an IoT solution are as follows: devices, back-end services, and the communications between the two. 
+* A pressure sensor on a remote oil pump.
+* Temperature and humidity sensors in an air-conditioning unit.
+* An accelerometer in an elevator.
+* Presence sensors in a room.
 
-### IoT devices
+There's a wide variety of devices available from different manufacturers to build your solution. For a list of devices certified to work with Azure IoT Hub, see the [Azure Certified for IoT device catalog](https://catalog.azureiotsolutions.com/alldevices). For prototyping, you can use devices such as an [MXChip IoT DevKit](https://microsoft.github.io/azure-iot-developer-kit/) or a [Raspberry Pi](https://www.raspberrypi.org/). The Devkit has built-in sensors for temperature, pressure, humidity, and a gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer. The Raspberry Pi lets you attach many different types of sensor. 
 
-Devices are generally made up of a circuit board with sensors attached that connect to the internet. Many devices communicate via a Wi-Fi chip. Here are some examples of IoT devices:
+Microsoft provides open-source [Device SDKs](../iot-hub/iot-hub-devguide-sdks.md) that you can use to build the apps that run on your devices. These [SDKs simplify and accelerate](https://azure.microsoft.com/blog/benefits-of-using-the-azure-iot-sdks-in-your-azure-iot-solution/) the development of your IoT solutions.
 
-* pressure sensors on a remote oil pump
-* temperature and humidity sensors in an air-conditioning unit
-* accelerometers in an elevator
-* presence sensors in a room
+## Communication
 
-Two devices that are frequently used for prototyping are the basic MX Chip IoT Devkit from Microsoft and Raspberry PI devices. The MX Chip Devkit has sensors built in for temperature, pressure, humidity, as well as a gyroscope and accelerometer, a magnetometer and a Wi-Fi chip. Raspberry PI is an IoT device to which you can attach many different kinds of sensors, so you can select exactly what you need for your scenario. 
+Typically, IoT devices send telemetry from the sensors to back-end services in the cloud. However, other types of communication are possible such as a back-end service sending commands to your devices. The following are some examples of device-to-cloud and cloud-to-device communication:
 
-For more information about available IoT devices, check out the industry's largest [catalog of devices certified for IoT](https://catalog.azureiotsolutions.com/alldevices).
+* A mobile refrigeration truck sends temperature every 5 minutes to an IoT Hub. 
 
-The [IoT Device SDKs](../iot-hub/iot-hub-devguide-sdks.md) enable you to build apps that run on your devices so they can perform the tasks you need. With the SDKs, you can send telemetry to your IoT hub, receive messages and updates from the IoT Hub, and so on.
+* The back-end service sends a command to a device to change the frequency at which it sends telemetry to help diagnose a problem. 
 
-### Communication
+* A device sends alerts based on the values read from its sensors. For example, a device monitoring a batch reactor in a chemical plant, sends an alert when the temperature exceeds a certain value.
 
-Your device can communicate with back-end services in both directions. Here are some examples of ways that the device can communicate with the back-end solution.
+* Your devices send information to display on a dashboard for viewing by human operators. For example, a control room in a refinery may show the temperature, pressure, and flow volumes in each pipe, enabling operators to monitor the facility. 
 
-#### Examples 
+The [IoT Device SDKs](../iot-hub/iot-hub-devguide-sdks.md) and IoT Hub support common [communication protocols](../iot-hub/iot-hub-devguide-protocols.md) such as HTTP, MQTT, and AMQP.
 
-* Your device may send temperature from a mobile refrigeration truck every 5 minutes to an IoT Hub. 
-
-* The back-end service can ask the device to send telemetry more frequently to help diagnose a problem. 
-
-* Your device can send alerts based on the values read from its sensors. For example, if monitoring a batch reactor in a chemical plant, you may want to send an alert when the temperatures exceeds a certain value.
-
-* Your device can send information to a dashboard for viewing by human operators. For example, a control room in a refinery may show the temperature and pressure of each pipe, as well as the volume flowing through that pipe, allowing the operators to watch it. 
-
-These tasks, and more, can be implemented using the [IoT Device SDKs](../iot-hub/iot-hub-devguide-sdks.md).
-
-#### Connection Considerations
-
-Connecting devices securely and reliably is often the biggest challenge in IoT solutions. This is because IoT devices have different characteristics when compared to other clients such as browsers and mobile apps. Specifically, IoT devices:
+IoT devices have different characteristics when compared to other clients such as browsers and mobile apps. The device SDKs help you address the challenges of connecting devices securely and reliably to your back-end service.  Specifically, IoT devices:
 
 * Are often embedded systems with no human operator (unlike a phone).
-
 * Can be deployed in remote locations, where physical access is expensive.
-
-* May only be reachable through the solution back end. There is no other way to interact with the device.
-
+* May only be reachable through the solution back end.
 * May have limited power and processing resources.
-
 * May have intermittent, slow, or expensive network connectivity.
-
 * May need to use proprietary, custom, or industry-specific application protocols.
 
-### Back-end services 
+## Back-end services 
 
-Here are some of the functions a back-end service can provide.
+In an IoT solution, the back-end service provides functionality such as:
 
 * Receiving telemetry at scale from your devices, and determining how to process and store that data.
-
 * Analyzing the telemetry to provide insights, either in real time or after the fact.
-
 * Sending commands from the cloud to a specific device. 
+* Provisioning devices and controlling which devices can connect to your infrastructure.
+* Controlling the state of your devices and monitoring their activities.
+* Managing the firmware installed on your devices.
 
-* Provisioning devices and control which devices can connect to your infrastructure.
-
-* Control the state of your devices and monitor their activities.
-
-For example, in a predictive maintenance scenario, the cloud back end stores historical telemetry. The solution uses this data to identify potential anomalous behavior on specific pumps before they cause a real problem. Using data analytics, it can identify that the preventative solution is to send a command back to the device to take a corrective action. This process generates an automated feedback loop between the device and the cloud that greatly increases the solution efficiency.
-
-## An IoT example
-
-Here is an example of how one company used IoT to save millions of dollars. 
-
-There is a huge cattle ranch with hundreds of thousands of cows. It's a big deal to keep track of that many cows, and know how they're doing, and requires a lot of driving around. They attached sensors to every single cow, sending information such as the GPS coordinates and temperature to a back-end service to be written to a database.
-
-Then they have an analytical service that scans the incoming data and analyzes the data for each cow to check questions like the following:
-
-* Is the cow running a temperature? How long has the cow been running a temperature? If it has been longer than a day, get the GPS coordinates and go find the cow, and if appropriate, treat it with antibiotics. 
-
-* Is the cow in the same place for more than a day? If so, get the GPS coordinates and go find the cow. Has the cow fallen off of a cliff? Is the cow injured? Does the cow need help? 
-
-Implementing this IoT solution made it possible for the company to check and treat the cows quickly, and cut down on the amount of time they had to spend driving around checking on their animals, saving them a lot of money. For more real-life examples of how companies use IoT, see [Microsoft Technical Case Studies for IoT](https://microsoft.github.io/techcasestudies/#technology=IoT&sortBy=featured). 
-
-## IoT Services
-
-There are several IoT-related services in Azure and it can be confusing to figure out which one you want to use. Some, such as IoT Central and the IoT solution accelerators, provide templates to help you create your own solution and get started quickly. You can also fully develop your own solutions using other services available -- it all depends on how much help you want, and how much control. Here is a list of the services available, as well as what you may use them for.
-
-1. [**IoT Central**](../iot-central/core/overview-iot-central.md): This is an IoT application platform that simplifies the creation of IoT solutions and helps to reduce the burden and cost of IoT management operations, and development. To start, you select a template for your device type and create and test a basic IoT Central application that the operators of the device will use. The IoT Central application will also enable you to monitor the devices and provision new devices. This service is for straightforward solutions that don't require deep service customization.
-
-2. [**IoT solution accelerators**](/azure/iot-suite): This is a collection of PaaS solutions you can use to accelerate your development of an IoT solution. You start with a provided IoT solution and then fully customize that solution to your requirements. You need Java or .NET skills to customize the back-end, and JavaScript skills to customize the visualization. 
-
-3. [**IoT Hub**](/azure/iot-hub/): This service allows you to connect from your devices to an IoT hub, and monitor and control billions of IoT devices. This is especially useful if you need bi-directional communication between your IoT devices and your back end. This is the underlying service for IoT Central and IoT solution accelerators. 
-
-4. [**IoT Hub Device Provisioning Service**](/azure/iot-dps/): This is a helper service for IoT Hub that you can use to provision devices to your IoT hub securely. With this service, you can easily provision millions of devices rapidly, rather than provisioning them one by one. 
-
-5. [**IoT Edge**](/azure/iot-edge/): This service builds on top of IoT Hub. It can be used to analyze data on the IoT devices rather than in the cloud. By moving parts of your workload to the edge, fewer messages need to be sent to the cloud. 
-
-6. [**Azure Digital Twins**](../digital-twins/index.yml): This service enables you to create comprehensive models of the physical environment. You can model the relationships and interactions between people, spaces, and devices. For example, you can predict maintenance needs for a factory, analyze real-time energy requirements for an electrical grid, or optimize the use of available space for an office.
+For example, in a remote monitoring solution for an oil pumping station, the cloud back end uses telemetry from the pumps to identify anomalous behavior. When the back-end service identifies an anomaly, it can automatically send a command back to the device to take a corrective action. This process generates an automated feedback loop between the device and the cloud that greatly increases the solution efficiency.
 
-7. [**Time Series Insights**](/azure/time-series-insights): This service enables you to store, visualize, and query large amounts of time series data generated by IoT devices. You can use this service with IoT Hub. 
+## Azure IoT examples
 
-8. [**Azure Maps**](/azure/azure-maps): This service provides geographic information to web and mobile applications. There is a full set of REST APIs as well as a web-based JavaScript control that can be used to create flexible applications that work on desktop or mobile applications for both Apple and Windows devices.
+For real-life examples of how organizations use Azure IoT, see [Microsoft Technical Case Studies for IoT](https://microsoft.github.io/techcasestudies/#technology=IoT&sortBy=featured). 
 
 ## Next steps
 
 For some actual business cases and the architecture used, see the [Microsoft Azure IoT Technical Case Studies](https://microsoft.github.io/techcasestudies/#technology=IoT&sortBy=featured).
 
 For some sample projects that you can try out with an IoT DevKit, see the [IoT DevKit Project Catalog](https://microsoft.github.io/azure-iot-developer-kit/docs/projects/). 
 
-For a more comprehensive explanation of the different services and how they are used, see [Azure IoT services and technologies](iot-services-and-technologies.md).
+For a more comprehensive explanation of the different services and how they're used, see [Azure IoT services and technologies](iot-services-and-technologies.md).
 
 For an in-depth discussion of IoT architecture, see the [Microsoft Azure IoT Reference Architecture](https://aka.ms/iotrefarchitecture).

articles/iot-fundamentals/iot-services-and-technologies.md

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 ---
 title: Azure Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and solutions
 description: Describes the collection of technologies and services you can use to build an Azure IoT solution.
-author: robinsh
+author: dominicbetts
 ms.service: iot-fundamentals
 services: iot-fundamentals
 ms.topic: overview
-ms.date: 10/09/2018
-ms.author: robinsh
+ms.date: 01/15/2020
+ms.author: dobett
 ---
 
 # Azure technologies and services for creating IoT solutions
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ Iot Central uses digital twins to synchronize devices and data in the real world
 
 IoT devices typically generate large amounts of time series data, such as temperature readings from sensors. [Azure Time Series Insights](../time-series-insights/time-series-insights-overview.md) can connect to an IoT hub, read the telemetry stream from your devices, store that data, and enable you to query and visualize it.
 
+[Azure Maps](/azure/azure-maps) is a collection of geospatial services that use fresh mapping data to provide accurate geographic context to web and mobile applications. You can use a REST API, a web-based JavaScript control, or an Android SDK to build your applications.
+
 ## Next steps
 
 For a hands-on experience, try one of the quickstarts:

articles/iot-fundamentals/iot-solution-options.md

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+---
+title: Azure Internet of Things (IoT) solution options
+description: Guidance on choosing between a platform services or managed app platform approach to building an IoT solution. The platform service approach uses services such as IoT Hub and Digital Twins as building blocks. The managed app platform approach uses IoT Central to quickly get started.
+author: dominicbetts
+ms.service: iot-fundamentals
+services: iot-fundamentals
+ms.topic: overview
+ms.date: 02/05/2020
+ms.author: dobett
+---
+
+# Choose the right IoT solution
+
+To build an IoT solution for your business, you typically choose to use either the *platform services* or the *managed app platform* approach.
+
+Platform services provide the building blocks for customized and flexible IoT applications. You have more options to choose and code when you connect devices, and ingest, store, and analyze your data. Azure IoT platform services include the products Azure IoT Hub and Azure Digital Twins.
+
+A managed app platform lets you get started building apps more quickly than platform services by reducing the number of decisions needed to achieve results. The managed app platform takes care of most elements of your solution, so you can focus on adding industry knowledge, and scaling and connecting devices. Azure IoT Central is a managed app platform.
+
+To choose between these two approaches, you should consider:
+
+- How you want to manage your solution.
+- What level of customization and control you want over your solution.
+- What pricing structure you want.
+
+## Management
+
+Where do you want to spend your system management time and resources? 
+
+- Choose the platform services approach to have full control over the underlying services in your solution. For example, you want to:
+
+    - Manage scaling and securing services to meet your needs.
+    - Make use of in-house or partner expertise to onboard devices and provision services.
+
+- Choose the managed app platform approach to take advantage of a platform that handles scale, security, and management of your IoT applications and devices.
+
+## Control
+
+What elements of your solution do you want to customize?
+
+- Choose the platform services approach for total customization and control over the solution architecture.
+
+- Choose the managed app platform approach to customize branding, dashboards, user roles, devices, and telemetry. However, you don't want to handle the underlying IoT system management overhead.
+
+## Pricing
+
+What pricing structure best fits your needs?
+
+- Choose the platform services approach to fine-tune services and control my overall costs.
+
+- Choose the managed app platform approach for a simple, predictable pricing structure.
+
+## Summary
+
+The platform services approach is appropriate for a business with cloud solution and device expertise that wants to:
+
+- Fine-tune the services in the solution.
+- Have a high degree of control over the services in the solution.
+- Fully customize the solution.
+
+The managed app platform approach is appropriate for a business that:
+
+- Doesn't want to dedicate extensive resources to system design, development, and management.
+- Does want a predictable pricing structure.
+- Does want some customization capabilities.
+
+## Next steps
+
+For a more comprehensive explanation of the different services and platforms, and how they're used, see [Azure IoT services and technologies](iot-services-and-technologies.md).
+
+To learn more about the key attributes of successful IoT solutions, see the [8 attributes of successful IoT solutions](https://aka.ms/8attributes) white paper.
+
+For an in-depth discussion of IoT architecture, see the [Microsoft Azure IoT Reference Architecture](https://aka.ms/iotrefarchitecture).

articles/iot-fundamentals/toc.yml

@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
   items:
   - name: Introduction
     href: iot-introduction.md
+  - name: Choose the right IoT solution
+    href: iot-solution-options.md
   - name: Azure IoT services and technologies
     href: iot-services-and-technologies.md  
   - name: Support and help options