Differences from IoT Core

Owned by Aaron Allsbrook
Last updated: Jan 16, 2024 by Jeff Slavin (Unlicensed)
2 min read

ClearBlade IoT Enterprise allows for running many types of IoT solutions. This includes building your own IoT Platform or using template solutions like IoT Core and Intelligent Assets.

Today, every IoT Core registry is a system running on an IoT Enterprise instance.

Basic feature comparison

IoT Core

  • Organized by registry

  • Registries contain devices that:

    • Can send only telemetry or state-specific MQTT topics

    • Can receive commands or controls on specific MQTT topics

  • All data flows into Google Pub/Sub

  • Fixed API endpoints for communication with the registry

IoT Enterprise

  • Organized by systems

  • Systems contain users, devices, and edges and allow for the creation of new data structures

  • Systems allow for authoring micro-services that can:

    • Execute logic

    • Subscribe and publish information to MQTT

    • Make HTTP calls

    • Make available as public webhooks

    • Send data to other systems like Pub/Sub, Kafka, or MQTT brokers

  • Systems have a full MQTT broker, allowing topic patterns

  • Systems can create and deploy logic to edges

And much more.

Architecture

IoT Core registries run on IoT Enterprise instances running as Kubernetes clusters in a cloud region. This results in having a private instance of the IoT Core solution running a private dedicated Kubernetes cluster.

Advantages of IoT Core on IoT Enterprise

  • Private IoT Core registries

  • IoT Core registries running in any cloud or cloud region

  • Remove IoT Core’s limits and constraints

  • Extend IoT Core’s functionality

Structure

An IoT Core solution is comprised of many systems running on IoT Enterprise. IoT Core has an administrative system named IoT Admin that manages all registries.

IoT Admin → 1 system

  • Contains the list of all IoT Core registries being hosted

  • Includes the list of all users

  • Serves APIs for managing IoT Core registries

IoT Core registries → Many systems (one for each registry)

  • Contains a device and gateway listing

  • Contains Pub/Sub configuration

  • Provides device-level APIs.

Getting started with IoT Core on IoT Enterprise

IoT Enterprise provides a backend view to IoT Core registries, called the IoT Enterprise console, and is hosted as a web-based IDE. IoT Enterprise developers can log into this environment and see each registry’s underlying logic.

IoT Core running on IoT Enterprise will also include the standard IoT Core web page. Users can create accounts there and can create registries available in the standard user interface.