adminBusinesses are dependent on raw material; demand in the market and last but not the least, employees. Every operation, strategy, decision making and supervision, everything requires human interference. However, the sudden intrusion of Covid-19 and its ongoing havoc has disrupted regular lives, market and businesses. Business leaders are unable to take any decision without estimating the risk pandemic can cause for workers.
Every time an employee visits the workplace to do some manual task becomes vulnerable to COVID-19. The risk of getting affected by coronavirus has urged businesses to think about software and sensors to automate tasks which were previously operated by humans.
The inclination toward having an automated business process has led to the adoption of IoT. Still, most of the time business owners forget about the most crucial and complex aspect required for the transition, i.e. hardware integration.
No, doubt hardware integration remains one of the most painful processes needed to create customized IoT solutions. In this blog, we’ll check the challenges which emerge while having hardware integration. We’ll also learn about AWS IoT Things Graph and how it helps in making hardware integration easy and painless process.
What are the challenges which emerge during Hardware Integration?
Uninterrupted communication is a critical demand during hardware integration. To get a clear view, let us take an example of an orchestra group. Suppose you own an orchestra consisting of musician belonging to different countries, and all are preparing to play Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. But the catch in this concept is there is no conductor. Absence of conductor would not stop the musicians for performing the piece, but it would not sound great and appealing. Not just this, there would be interruption by hiccups, miscommunication and argument for how the music should be performed.
Well, for mind-blowing performance musicians need alignment, ability to community with each other efficiently, and management of complex interactions between different groups within the orchestra. This implies that the orchestra needs a conductor for a significant result.
Hardware integration encounters similar problems. Your business process consists of a ton of devices that has to work collectively to perform a specific task and get a particular outcome. Furthermore, each hardware vendor speaks in different protocols, so it becomes tough to understand, and you cannot use devices out of the box directly.
Thus, it is evident that the lack of usually shared standards in the industry or business creates confusion for developers.
In the end, developers have to opt for a time-consuming solution. They waste time in repeat integration works for several devices when the devices are fundamentally the same (LED light bulb of different brands). Hardware integration is challenging and complex because you need an expert to understand the working of different parts and how all of them joins to create a big picture.
Any idea about AWS IoT Things Graph and why should you use it for hardware integration?
The best way to define AWS IoT Things Graph is a conductor which IoT space requires to show its best version. AWS IoT Things Graph is a service developed to resolve challenges occurring in hardware integration and helps in faster development of IoT applications. It enables you to connect different devices and web services in a plug-and-play way to end business difficulties.
Getting back to orchestra example, conductor in an orchestra aligns musicians, administers the interpretation and controls the pace of the music, monitors critically and sets a single vision.
The four fundamental features of AWS IoT Things Graph are:
- Models
- Visual User Interface
- Work at the Edge
- Monitoring Flows
The model represents things, i.e. devices and web services. Models are an essential feature of AWS as it cuts the time of developers spend on worrying about underlying implementation and allow them to concentrate on using the model abilities. It is often observed that developers have to spend a lot of time ensuring that the messages between various model are communicating correctly or not.
AWS IoT Things Graph simplifies the work of developers and enables comfortable working with devices and services. Additionally, models are like reusable building blocks that developers can share with each other and avoid repetitive integration efforts.
The AWS IoT Things Graph UI lets you determine interaction happening between various models through flow diagram connecting outputs & inputs. It empowers you to design how devices & services should communicate with each other and allows you to create multi-step workflows. So, this gives more time for developers to focus on business logic & functionality than repetitive integration.
In IoT, the biggest challenge is updating the legacy systems with new hardware. Earlier, your approach was limited to a specific ecosystem, but AWS provides you with the freedom to change hardware without rebuilding everything from the start. AWS provides you with flexibility and freedom to emphasis on your application promptly whenever customer demands the better resolution.
AWS IoT Things Graph permits your business to run at the edge with just a few clicks from the AWS IoT Things Graph console. The steps to take up are- define your perimeters, connect models with your real-world devices, schedule when to execute, and station applications to the cloud or AWS Green IoT Greengrass device. Thus, we can conclude that AWS IoT Things Graph charters a path which helps you moulding the concept into a product which is present in the market place.
AWS also allows you to monitor the present condition of the IoT application. This monitoring feature is highly advantageous as it informs you about where any flow or steps fail. You can fix the issue immediately without disturbing any other process. When connected with Amazon Cloudwatch, you can get access to log flow and execution time to check any disruption or steps failure. You can set the metrics which you are concerned about, and you’ll get notified when any changes occur.
Conclusion:
AWS IoT Things Graph is developed to assist application developers and help them in tackling the unique challenges that appear during hardware integration. The adoption of this service ends the long dispute existing between developers and hardware vendors on lack of the standard. It ends the repeated integration efforts and allows developers to concentrate on essential tasks like building features to overcome business issues. IoT is the most critical requirement of the time, but it is hard to implement in the business. AWS IoT Things Graph for hardware integration provides speed, simplicity and customization needed to build IoT application. The use of AWS IoT Things Graph can improve your business operations and assists you in making an idea into reality using IoT. Thus it is a smart decision to use AWS IoT Things Graph for painless hardware integration.