News

Verizon DevKit Targets IoT Projects on AWS Cloud

• By David Ramel
• 01/03/2019

With big things forecast for the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2019, Verizon has provided a development kit to help Amazon cloud users get started.

The DevKit works with Verizon's ThingSpace platform for building IoT devices and runs on Amazon FreeRTOS, a real-time operating system kernel for embedded devices.

The goal, Verizon said, is to make it easier for developers, OEM manufacturers, and system integration organizations to create IoT solutions leveraging the Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) cloud platform and connect to the managed AWS IoT Core service.

"Instead of spending a lot of time struggling to manage IoT connections and network options, this DevKit allows customers to focus on IoT solution development for improved intelligence and business performance, knowing that the underlying connectivity is sorted," said Verizon exec Shawn Hakl in a statement. "Verizon's Secure Cloud Interconnect (SCI) solution allows companies to connect securely and reliably to AWS, so they can quickly get their IoT solutions up and running. It's about opening up the potential of IoT to everyone."

While the DevKit initially targets only the AWS cloud, the new offering is actually part of a larger initiative from Verizon called the ThingSpace Cloud Connectors program, created to ease the integration with IoT developers' existing cloud service providers.

Verizon said the DevKit will provide an integrated ordering and activation experience on its network, while simplifying access to AWS Cloud and IoT Services. "Enterprises can quickly collect, manage, and analyze data from IoT devices through the ThingSpace platform, which also makes it easier for users to subscribe and manage their IoT devices, and perform lifecycle functions such as location, diagnostics and software management services," the company said in a statement.

The new kit bolsters the growing IoT development services on the AWS cloud, which itself recently debuted a bevy of its own IoT offerings aimed at developers, as well as industrial customers managing large fleets of connected devices.