Amazon Web Services has tapped into the Internet of things (IOT) market following the announcement of the AWS IOT platform.
The platform was unveiled by CTO Werner Vogels during the ongoing AWS re:Invent Conference in Las Vegas.
A recent report from McKinsey found the IOT market could reach $11 trillion by 2025.
Vogels said the AWS IOT platform makes it easy for devices - cars, turbines, sensor grids, light bulbs, and more - to connect to AWS services so that companies can store, process, analyse, and act on the volumes of data generated by connected devices on a global scale.
In a press statement, AWS says devices connect to AWS IOT's Device Gateway, and manufacturers can set rules for how AWS IOT handles the data they send, and the actions they take when various conditions are met, such as sending an alert when a pressure sensor reports an unusually high reading or a motion detector is triggered.
It explains that connected devices are usually operated via applications that communicate with them using application programming interfaces (APIs), but devices may not always be available to respond to API calls because of intermittent connectivity or because of power constraints.
AWS IOT creates a virtual version, or "shadow" of each connected device that includes all of the information about the device's state and is always available so that applications can check the device's status and take actions that are automatically sent to the device once it reconnects, it notes.
"Today, many of the world's leading manufacturers, developers, enterprises, and smart cities use AWS services to power a wide range of IOT applications that span everything from energy metering and oil and gas production, to fleet management and smart homes," said Vogels.
"However, operating highly available and reliable systems that connect and gather data from large fleets of 'things' - sensors embedded in everything from manufacturing equipment and vehicle fleets, to fitness devices and homes - involves a significant amount of development and infrastructure effort," he pointed out.
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