Supported cloud providers

nRF Asset Tracker is a single cloud solution that supports multiple cloud providers. The concrete implementation will differ for each cloud provider. This solution does not support seamless switching between cloud providers. A multi-cloud solution with a functionality of switching between the clouds will require the implementation of additional abstraction layers. Also, it can mandate a constant translation between the vendor-specific concepts and the abstraction instead of becoming a meaningful benefit for the users. Hence, in this project, the best practices of the respective cloud vendor for building a serverless IoT solution are followed.

See the below table for a list of supported cloud providers:

Amazon Web Services

Microsoft Azure

LTE-M: TCP and MQTT

Feature complete

Feature complete

NB-IoT: UDP and LwM2M

In consideration

In consideration

In the case of cloud providers without native UDP and LwM2M support, the option of using a bridge such as Eclipse Californium, was evaluated. For more information, see Leshan LwM2M AWS IoT Gateway.

IoT cloud vendor survey results

The following table provides a comparison between the results of the IoT cloud vendor surveys done on different years:

Cloud providers

Nordic internal (2022)

Nordic internal (2021)

Nordic internal (2020)

Nordic internal (2019)

Eclipse Foundation (2019)

AWS

1. 100%

1. 100%

1. 100%

1. 100%

1. 100%

Azure

2. 59% ▲

3. 50% ▼

3. 66%

3. 66%

2. 84%

Google¹

3. 49% ▼

2. 54% ▼

2. 68% ▼

2. 79%

3. 73%

Arm Pelion

4. 9% ▼

4. 10% ▼

4. 23% ▼

4. 25%

IBM

5. 8% ▼

5. 9% ▼

5. 16% ▼

5. 20%

These survey results can have an influence on the cloud provider selection.

A value of 100% in the chart corresponds to the majority of answers given for a specific cloud provider in the survey, while the rest of the percentage values for the different cloud providers (with less answers) are given relatively to the majority of answers for a specific cloud provider per year.

¹ As of August 16th 2022, Google has announced the retirement of Google IoT Core by August 16th 2023.