Preface

Without any doubt, we are living in a true digital era, and the future will be even more digitalized. The keyword when we consider what it means to be truly digitalized is being connected. Many organizations and business enterprises are striving to make their products and solutions fully connected, with a view to gain more insights and operate their products both efficiently and remotely. The end goal is to increase their revenue, reduce operational costs, and increase customer satisfaction.

Internet of Things, or IoT for short, plays a vital role in connecting the physical products around us that we never imagined could be connected. Therefore, understanding IoT technologies and how they can solve different business problems, and having an understanding of how these technologies work is a must-have skill for any IT or software professional, both in our current era, and in the future as well.

People typically approach IoT technologies in one of following two ways - as a hobby, or as a profession. A hobbyist will typically use and play with IoT technologies to solve small problems they might have in their smart home, or in their office. They might purchase personal devices or microcontrollers such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi, along with some sensors. Then, using Wi-Fi connectivity and little or no code, they can program their devices to automate processes in their smart home and beyond.

Approaching IoT from a professional point of view is somewhat different, as IoT professionals (such as IoT solution architects, designers, or engineers) work in companies or enterprises that design and build large IoT solutions and products. Some examples of this could be smart cities, smart agriculture, connected vehicles, and so many other large IoT solutions that are available across thousands of different industries and business segments.

I wrote this book for IoT professionals who want to design and build large scale IoT solutions. I have worked in the IoT field for a long time now, so in this book, I'm sharing a wealth of practical experience in designing and building large IoT solutions.

There are three sections in this book. The first section covers the basics, or the foundations, of IoT, which is what I like to call the anatomy of IoT – for example, we will explore the meaning of the letters I and T in IoT.

The second section covers the IoT backend layer, or what I would call the IoT solution backbone. This is where we'll learn about the different software solutions and components that are used in that layer.

The final section covers the different IoT modern application architecture paradigms that are commonly used in almost all IoT solution layers. We'll also cover the IoT solution operational excellence pillars, which include IoT monitoring, security, resiliency, and availability.

In this book, I tried to cover a wide range of IoT topics, such as IoT connectivity, IoT device management, IoT analytics, IoT platforms, IoT applications, and many more. Our approach will be to first explain the concepts behind each topic, then show the different implementation options that you as an IoT solution architect or designer might come across during the IoT project designing and building phase. Finally, I have added my own design or architecture views, which is based on my practical experience and the technical pragmatic approach that is typically used in designing and building such large scale IoT solutions.