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Any Help/Advice on an Easy IoT Cloud to Connect to?

Mike McKean
I was wondering if anyone knows an easy way of building an access method to an IoT Cloud. I am looking at Google Core and Microsoft Azure.  I also looked at some much smaller Clouds. Maybe if I outline the end to end structure that may help;

Sensors; They could communicate by Bluetooth, Wifi, or Mobile network via a SIM card. I know there are lots of other options, but I want to restrict my connectivity options to these three.  I will design/build these. Happy with this part.

Gateway/Bridge. If possible, I want a software install, that can be installed on a Windows laptop. The gateway/bridge will manage a number of Sensors, on one side, and an WAN connection on the other. I may have an option here, but the firm which was offering me a trial has gone quiet. I think I need to keep their details confidential, as they do not seem to have gone public about what they are talking to me about. But does anyone have such a solution they can tell me about?

Cloud. This is where I find I am trying to eat an Elephant, all in one bite. All I want is to connect the Gateway/Bridge to a hosted environment.


I think one of my issues is that I am very rusty at much of this. For instance I am having to re-learn C++, then install/learn Eclipse, then I.C. manufacturers IDE’s, e.g. MBED and CCS, then Visual Studio for Azure …… and so it goes on. I don’t mind the learning, it’s just there is only one of me, and I need sleep in between work … 
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    Mike,

    A couple of responses to your points: (Note I have no involvement in Thingstream other than as a customer)
    Their solution needs me to use one of their sensors, or their SIM card in one of my Sensors. The SIM is network agnostic, and will roam to whichever GSM connection is the stronger. We are using the eSIM which is soldered to the board and not changeable but can be remotely managed and steered towards a particular network if necessary. I am well aware of the SIM lock-in issue, it caused us great pain. Our current 3G SIM cards are completely roaming, slightly more expensive but well worth it. But with USSD and Thingstream the SIM management and lock in is not an issue. OK so you have to connect through Thingstream but that uses sandard tools of NodeRed and MQTT.
    3.  The technology they use for connectivity is limited to 182 alphanumeric characters. I want unlimited amounts of data, or should I say, only limited by any bandwidth/network issues. e.g. I may want to send audio, video, or streaming data. The technology isn't limited to 182 chrs, each message frame holds up to 182 but you can have any number of frames in a message payload. Very low-cost Not the right choice for streaming audio or video but then this is not normally an IOT requirement.
    4. From what their website describes, I still need to use one of the mainstream IoT Clouds, or at least that's the topology their website shows. So, I still am back to where I am now, except I use their sensor(s) or SIM card, and their solution is another layer in between my sensors and the Google/AWS/Azure cloud? Not so, you can use your own cloud if you choose, all you need is a client wich subscribes and publishes to the Thingstream interface. We connect via a 2nd MQTT broker directly into our WaterWorX platform.
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    Hi Laurence,

    Thanks. You raise some good points. I’ll have a look at this, thanks. Much appreciated. Mike

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