Announcing the IoT Atlas

Since announcing the availability of AWS IoT in 2015, our conversations with customers have made it clear that long-standing IoT design patterns from mature domains such as sensor networks, control system architectures, and machine-to-machine networks had to be revised to include cloud development concepts. The IoT Atlas is a collection of IoT design patterns, best practices, and implementations available in an easy-to-use, searchable website (http://iotatlas.net). It updates and expands on industry designs by assuming that a hyper-scale cloud is available to those who are building IoT solutions. The IoT Atlas is a resource for new and long-time solution builders alike.

Because the designs are cloud-service agnostic, the IoT Atlas is being published as a repository on GitHub. By publishing the content under a Creative Commons license, we hope to facilitate customer, field, and partner contributions of design ideas, considerations, and examples. We also hope to spark conversation and understanding about new IoT patterns in solutions.

Patterns in IoT Atlas:

The IoT Atlas currently offers the following design patterns. For the latest list of patterns, please click here.

Command: A requesting entity reliably asks a device to perform a single action, with acknowledgement of status.
Device Bootstrap: An unregistered device becomes registered and fully functional in an IoT solution.
Device State Replica: A logical representation of a physical device’s reported state or desired future state.
Gateway: A device acts as an intermediary between local devices as well as devices and the cloud.
Model-View-Controller Device Software Design Pattern: Recommendation for the design and structure of device software.
Software Update: A device obtains new software, performs an update on itself, and confirms completion.
Telemetry: Collect data from sensors in a remote environment and make the measurements available for use by other components of an IoT solution.
Telemetry Archiving: A device’s measurements are saved and made available for use in their original or processed form.

For example, historical telemetry-oriented solutions might obtain sensor data from on-premises devices and send that data using FTP, HTTP, or another mechanism to a self-managed server. The telemetry design in the IoT Atlas uses a managed, scalable, cloud-based IoT messaging protocol and protocol endpoint. For this reason, the original telemetry design benefits from a revision that includes a global, hyper-scale cloud.

Best Practices and Implementations:

In addition to design patterns, IoT Atlas includes best practices and Implementation guidance to help customers optimize their IoT deployments.

• Best Practices: This section provides IoT best practices and their applications across various cloud and system environments. These best practices may incorporate specific patterns or address broader topics, such as device lifecycle management across different industries. For more information, visit IoT Atlas Best Practices.
• Implementations: This section provides guidance on implementing patterns across different cloud and system environments. Implementations outline the necessary actions to bring a pattern to life. While each pattern serves as a blueprint, there can be multiple implementation approaches for a single pattern. For more information, visit IoT Atlas Implementations.

Because this is day one for our publication of IoT design patterns, we would appreciate your help to make the IoT Atlas a rich and growing resource. Please read, review, comment, and take a moment to contribute your ideas and content for IoT design patterns, considerations, and examples. Together we can create maps that guide the industry toward successful IoT solutions.