An open source architecture for the IoT

Eclipse IoT is an ecosystem of organizations that are working together to establish an IoT architecture based on open source technologies and standards. Dave Shuman and James Kirkland showcase an end-to-end architecture for the IoT based on open source standards, highlighting Eclipse Kura, an open source stack for gateways and the edge, and Eclipse Kapua, an open source IoT cloud platform.

The IoT arena is exploding with a diverse set of technologies, features, standards, and architectures, each of which promises to be the panacea and the path forward for future enterprise adoption. However, given the speed of change, innovation, and the wide variety of use cases that IoT enables, it would be highly unlikely for any single proprietary IoT solution maintained by any one vendor to keep up with all the new standards, requirements, and technologies to be incorporated. Given these challenges, an end-to-end IoT architecture based on open source is starting to emerge as an attractive option for organizations embarking their IoT journey. In the coming years, the overall IoT market, like the enterprise software market, will pivot toward an open source, open standards model that enables innovation and is interoperable, flexible, and secure. Eclipse IoT is a community that is working together to establish an IoT architecture based on open source technologies and standards. Dave Shuman and James Kirkland showcase an end-to-end IoT architecture, from the device/edge to the cloud, specifically highlighting two key stacks in the ecosystem: Eclipse Kura, an open source stack for gateways and the edge, and Eclipse Kapua, the first open source IoT cloud platform. Eclipse Kura provides a general purpose middleware and application container for IoT gateway services and includes everything for the edge, such as an application container or runtime environment, communication and connectivity, data management and messaging, and remote management. Eclipse Kapua is a modular and cloud-based platform that provides services required for real-time data management and analytics and management of the IoT gateways and smart edge devices. Kapua also provides a core integration framework and an initial set of core IoT services, including a device registry, device management services, messaging services, data management, and application enablement. Apart from an end-to-end open IoT architecture, Dave and James explain how organizations can utilize an open source architecture for data management and analytics and how some of the leading open source projects, such as Apache Spark and Apache Kudu, can enable machine learning and drive advanced analytics on IoT data. Along the way, they share real-life examples of how some of the leading organizations are utilizing this open source stack to power some of the most compelling IoT use cases.