Summary

In this chapter, we began by touching briefly on the various computing platforms. We described how the mainframe computer with accompanying dumb terminals was superseded in part by the rise of connected personal computers, and how this was similar to the difference between an IoT application and an edge analytics one. We discussed how edge analytics is really just an edge computing paradigm.

We then looked at the advantages of using edge analytics over a traditional IoT application. We described a scenario where a vending machine uses a standard IoT solution, and the challenges this type of approach has.

We also started looking at the Microsoft Azure IoT offering. We discussed Microsoft Azure IoT Edge and how this relates to Azure IoT.

We concluded the chapter with a cursory look at a real-world example of the Microsoft Azure IoT Edge platform. In the next chapter, we will be expanding on the concepts learned in this chapter, and start to dig deeper into the actual components that make up an edge analytics application.