SAP Cloud Platform Internet of Things Webinar – Wrap Up of our Kick Off session

The SAP Cloud Platform Internet of Things (IoT service) is constantly being evolved to support the latest trends and requirements in the IoT / Device management space.

Did you miss our Webinar on Feb. 22nd on the Q1/2018 product innovations for the IoT service?

• Watch the recording and access the link to the presentation  or
• Read my summary on the key highlights below

For the first webinar of our quarterly series we started with a general overview of the capabilities, features and functions of the IoT service which was structured like outlined below:

• Architectural overview of the IoT service and contextual information how it fits into SAP Leonardo IoT portfolio
• IoT service integration with SAP IoT Application Enablement service
• IoT service integration with SAP Leonardo IoT Edge Services
• IoT service Roadmap
• IoT service Demo
• Q&A

At the beginning set the stage how the IoT service fits into the SAP Leonardo IoT portfolio where it is shown as “Technical Services” in the SAP Leonardo Foundation.

Further we introduced how the overall architecture looks like, also explaining the purposes of the different components.

IoT Gateway Edge or Cloud: looks after all aspects concerning management of devices, device integration, protocol normalization, data acquisition from deployed devices, edge computing. Depending upon the protocol and the connectivity requirements, it may either be hosted in the cloud or at “the edge” (even on the device itself if possible) thus the variation in the name. Certain protocols, such as MQTT, can be hosted in the cloud due to no special networking requirements. However, certain edge connectivity scenarios absolutely require a distributed deployment. Edge scenarios may include but are not limited to physical buildings, trucks / cars, gateway devices, or any other scenario where it is important to connect and process data locally prior to forwarding to the cloud back-end.
With the IoT Gateway EDGE there is further the ability to decide right at the edge if and how dat should be transmitted to the cloud – so not every IoT project necessarily has to become a big data project – rules, alerts, notifications that are configured and setup for IoT Gateway EDGE can lead to significantly reduced payloads into the cloud

IoT Message Management Service: handles all incoming device data streams and device messages through the IoT Gateway Edge/Cloud component. It’s based on JMS over HTTPS and provides publish and subscribe mechanism to consume real time info.

IoT Core Service: core foundational IoT backend services (including multi-tenancy, semantic data model, streaming analytics, data management, big data interfacing, management of applications, services etc.). This is exposed through RESTFUL APIs so that any authorized client can consume the processed data  which applications and systems can benefit from. Mediating layer between devices and applications.
The Message processing service provides different means of handling incoming messages. Depending on the actual use case messages might need to be persisted in a database or forwarded to a message broker, an event stream processor, a document repository, or any other system.

IoT Message Management Service provides processing services.
The default processing service is SQL. This means that all incoming messages are stored in a database. In addition the Message processing service offers an HTTP and a Kafka processing service. The HTTP processing service can be used to forward messages to any arbitrary HTTP endpoint and provides basic configuration. The Kafka processing service is able to connect to a self-provided Kafka Cluster.

DB / Persistence Layer / Platform Service: were data is stored/maintained. this is the native storage layer although customer can also leverage personal resources.

IoT Service SDK can create Java interceptors by offering wizard and sample template for same.

Further we looked into how the IoT service is being integrated with SAP IoT Application Enablement as well as the SAP Edge Services.

SAP IoT Application Enablement includes micro-services and re-usable components providing business semantics to model physical devices and processes across different industries and IoT scenarios. This is the foundation for all IoT scenarios from SAP and the partner ecosystem.

SAP Edge Services provides a secure run-time environment on edge computing devices for edge services including lifecycle management and communication to the “things” via protocol adaptors. These protocol adapters are belonging to the IoT Gateway Edge which is provisioned by the IoT service and thus the heart for the integration between SAP Edge Services and the IoT service and the whole SAP Cloud Platform behind.

For further details I kindly refer to the recording.

During the session there were also different questions asked that I attach here together with our answers. If there are any further questions and comments pls put them right into the blog.

Q: Is this IOT Gateway Edge similar to SAP Plant Connectivity kit?
A: Yes, there are some similarities with PCo, as well as obviously several different aspects that the two products cover. If you need a comprehensive comparison.

Q: What are the specifications for the hardware to run the IOT edge? could you do this with an RaspberryPi  for a lightweight solution?
A: Yes, you can run the IoT Gateway Edge on a RaspberryPI

Q: will a token based authentication on device /message level be provided (like for IoT 2.0 service)
A: No, with the new IoT service the following security mechanisms are supported.

Q: As a partner, how can we get access to play with SAP Leonardo Platform?
A: please take a look at: 
https://www.sapappsdevelopmentpartnercenter.com/en/faq/sap-hana-cloud-faqs_5/what-additional-resources-and-services-a_83/
https://www.sapappsdevelopmentpartnercenter.com/en/signup/additional-packs-existing-partners/

Q: Are the APIs shown n the API documentation are the ones to create a device data model ?
A: Yes, everything that is shown via cockpit can be done via API documentation as well

PS: Thx to Fabian!