Microsoft launches Azure IoT security program, certified device catalog

Microsoft today is announcing updates to its Azure IoT (Internet of Things) public cloud capabilities, along with new services to help business more widely deploy internet-connected devices and manage them from the cloud. Most importantly, the company is introducing a Security Program for Azure IoT through which it will pair customers with security auditors who will look for potential security issues and suggest fixes.

Microsoft already has a few auditors on tap: Casaba Security, CyberX, Praetorian, and Tech Mahindra.

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“What we see from customers is there’s a really strong willingness to do the right thing but not enough knowledge to do the right thing, and that’s where the security auditors come in,” Microsoft’s partner director of Azure IoT, Sam George, told VentureBeat in an interview.

In addition, Microsoft is launching an online catalog of Azure IoT-certified devices, making it easy to figure out which would be best for companies to use based on their application and business needs.

Embedded systems represent just another form factor for running Windows 10 — the Windows 10 IoT Core flavor of Windows in particular — but also they represent onramps to Azure. Not only can the cloud handle data storage and analytics for the devices, they can also be managed centrally from Azure. Small wonder that public cloud market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched IoT services, as has Salesforce.

So Microsoft is enhancing device management through the Azure IoT Hub. Beginning next month, customers will be able to update software and firmware configuration on lots of devices — say, in order to dodge security threats.

Azure IoT Hub launched out of preview in February. Between that service and the Azure Event Hubs service, Microsoft is sending 3.5 trillion messages per week, up from 10 million per month a year and a half ago, George said.

See George’s blog post for more detail.