How are IoT Hub, event hub, and event grid related?

How Azure Event Grid Can Become The Foundation Of Microsoft Serverless  Strategy

Event Hub, Azure IOT Hub, and Event Grid are categorized under Azure services with similar names. Still, the experts at Akenza will like to clear up any confusion by outlining how they are related and differ.

Azure services are intended for large-scale data ingestion from IoT-enabled devices or applications. The major distinction is that Event Hubs accept data, whereas Azure IOT Hubs can support two-way communication with an IOT-enabled device.

Azure IOT Hub, for example, can receive a signal from a pressure-sensing device and return firmware or software upgrades to that IOT device. An Event Hub can only communicate in one direction; it cannot communicate with the device that is giving the information.

Now we’ll look at the Event Grid. This grphic (another diagram from the Microsoft Event Grid page) shows how it fits within event processing. It is intended to process events rather than data. An Event Grid would be notified of an event and would then take action if it occurred.

On the left are event sources or systems that can emit data or events. The events are received by the Event Grid, which can then take action. Assume a file was placed in a specific blob storage container. I could transmit that information to the Event Grid, which could launch a logic program. The two red boxes represent Event Hub and Azure IOT Hub, indicating that you might use Event Grid to detect when an Event or IOT Hub gets a message and then take different actions depending on that message.

Custom Topics in the box on the lower left. It means you can construct your unique events using a custom application. So, if you’ve created your application, you may send events to the Event Grid, which will trigger other processes in the Azure ecosystem.

Another popular application of the Event Grid is at the subscription or resource group level. You might take action, such as telling users that a new resource was added if something has changed in the subscription or a resource was added to a group.

Which is “better” for IoT?

The short and crisp solution is Azure IoT Hub. However, it may be dependent on the system’s requirements. Either Azure IoT Hub or Event Grid could be utilized to send event messages into the cloud. Other messaging systems could also be employed depending on the system’s desired scale.

The only simple solution for 2-way messaging (device-to-cloud and cloud-to-device) is to use Azure IoT Hub. You can secure each device independently and manage its communications with Azure IoT Hub’s device management capabilities. Azure IoT Hub is required for real-time processing and analytics and the integration of Azure Stream Analytics. At the time of writing, the Azure Event Grid service does not support transmitting events to Azure Stream Analytics. Hence the Azure IoT Hub service is the better option.

Azure IoT Hub is the only service that includes individual device administration and security for connected IoT devices. While other messaging systems can protect particular message senders, the Azure IoT Hub service is intended to manage and connect individual IoT devices on a scale of billions of IoT devices.

While comparing and contrasting a few alternative possibilities for implementing a solution is always a good idea, the answer is straightforward. Azure IoT Hub is generally recommended for Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. The service is designed exclusively for IoT applications and includes device management and two-way communication features. Azure IoT Hub is the messaging service in Microsoft Azure that consists of these additional capabilities. All other messaging services are only for sending messages to the message broker service, necessitating the creation of your 2-way messaging infrastructure.

Why is MQTT important for IoT?

MQTT has been identified as one of the leading protocols for IoT solutions in recent years. There are various reasons for this. Firstly, one of the IoT protocols now used is the lightest. Since it is an open standard, any hardware or software can use it. The availability of client libraries for all popular programming languages makes it simple to create IoT applications utilizing MQTT.

Thanks to the publish and subscribe paradigm, MQTT’s flexibility makes it feasible to handle various IoT project designs and use case types. Notably, since the broker manages all connections, publishers and subscribers of the system don’t even need to be aware of one another’s existence. The protocol enables highly scalable projects to be implemented, potentially enabling the connection of millions of IoT devices in a single system. Broadcasting messages to numerous devices simultaneously is possible thanks to MQTT’s bi-directional connection. Finally, MQTT provides a wide range of data security measures, including TLS encryption.  

Lastly,

The experts at Akenza hope this brief explanation of the similarities and differences between Azure IOT Hub, Event Hubs, and Event Grid has cleared up any misunderstandings about how they are used. You’ve come to the right spot if you have any further queries regarding these services or any other Azure service.