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 | Google Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LTE-M: TCP and MQTT | feature complete | feature complete | On hold |
| 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 (2019) | Nordic internal (2020) | Eclipse Foundation (2019) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | 1. 100% | 1. 100% | 1. 100% |
| 2. 79% | 2. 68% ▼ | 3. 73% | |
| Azure | 3. 66% | 3. 66% | 2. 84% |
| Arm Pelion | 4. 25% | 4. 23% ▼ | |
| IBM | 5. 20% | 5. 16% ▼ |
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.