10 Ways Windows 10 Will Advance The Internet Of Things
Windows 10 brings functions and features that will change the Internet of Things (IoT) for the enterprise and individuals.
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Windows 10 is going to change desktop and mobile computing experiences for the better. That's what Microsoft says, and many IT pundits agree. The word is that Windows 10, which becomes commercially available on July 29, is a genuine improvement over the versions that have come before. Windows 10 is expected to bring advances in user experience, along with with a series of improvements in the OS core. It all sounds good, but I know the question you've really been waiting to ask: What about the Internet of Things (IoT)?
Microsoft hasn't forgotten about IoT -- that's clear from the sheer existence of Windows 10 IoT Core. Many words have been written about this version of Windows 10, most of them centered on fascinating facts like its ability to run on a Raspberry Pi 2. That's really good, but it's only the beginning of the changes that Windows 10 is going to bring to IoT.
Now, before we go any further, it's important to point out something that should be obvious: Many of the features I'm going to write about are available on other platforms from other vendors. My response? It doesn't matter. None of those other vendors have the sheer market weight and installed base size of Microsoft. None of those other vendors have nearly as many developers who already use their SDKs and visual development environments. The fact that Microsoft is making a substantial push into IoT is, by itself, meaningful. The specifics we'll discuss are second to that.
Most of the items on my list will be important to project developers and their managers. For users, it's the applications themselves that will be most important -- Microsoft's new products and services will allow developers to bring substantial new possibilities to those applications.
Are you developing Microsoft-based applications for the IoT? Have you been working with other embedded systems and are now going to experiment with Windows 10 IoT Core? I'm interested in your take on the IoT and the new potential Microsoft is bringing to the market. Let's talk about it in the comments section below.
OK, let's get this out of the way now: Embedded system designers and programmers have long been considered the geekiest members of a geeky profession. There are a number of reasons for that, most of them dealing with the kind of software development system required by the target machines. Windows 10 IoT Core allows "mainstream" developers to have a crack at the embedded system world, and allows embedded programmers to take the language skills they learn and use them on applications designed for hardware with "real" displays and input systems.
Many technology managers have worried about finding the right skills for IoT projects. Windows 10 IoT Core expands the talent pool considerably, and that should be good for developers and managers.
The Raspberry Pi has been a revelation for the embedded system world, and experimenters have already found ways to run Windows on the tiny Linux-based systems. With Windows 10 IoT Core, it becomes exponentially easier to get Windows running on the small system. While the Raspberry Pi won't be the board that goes out the door in IoT applications by the millions, it will remain a crucial system for development, experimentation, and education. Making it easy to do all of that under a professional operating system should make life better for developers who want a major market for their work.
Embedded system software development environments have long been, well, primitive in their user interfaces when compared to the systems available to desktop and enterprise application developers. With Windows 10 IoT Core, embedded programmers will have access to many of the same tools used by enterprise Windows developers. In addition to making embedded programmers more productive, the ability to use Windows development environments should make it possible for embedded system programmers, and their enterprise software colleagues, to collaborate effectively. IoT big data, here we come.
In many ways, networking for embedded systems has been a Wild West show until recently. Microsoft is using Windows 10 IoT Core as the sheriff that will bring a bit of law and order to embedded system networking. The new operating system will be able to identify as a system under AD, and get configuration information through AD system user credentials. That has the potential to do a couple of important things. First, it should make it easier for embedded components running Windows 10 IoT Core to associate with the control and analysis systems that will bring complex applications to IoT. Next, it should make it much easier to develop secure IoT applications, something that recent news regarding automobiles and hackers shows is a genuine need.
While I've been talking about Windows 10 IoT Core, the fact is that there are seven versions of Windows 10 that will be available for different purposes. The seven versions -- Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise, and Windows 10 IoT Core -- mean that system managers and application developers can choose the set of functions and built-in applications that best suit each aspect of a global application. When developers don't have to do quite so much "shrink to fit" -- customizing an operating system to go onto different platforms -- stability and security should each be dramatically improved.
Even though there are seven different versions of Windows 10, there's one core. That's critical, because it means that the improvements developed for one version should rapidly find their way into the others. While there are certainly differences in the code for Windows running on different platforms, it's not as though there are radically different operating systems for the different classes of machine. There are advantages to being a monolith, and the Windows 10 core should be able to take advantage of all of them.
The Microsoft .NET framework allows developers to readily build applications that use, and live, on the cloud. In order to bring as many developers as possible in the Microsoft programming fold, Microsoft has released the .NET Micro Framework under the Apache 2.0 Open Source License.
Microsoft hastens to note that the system is still under active development within the company, even though it's been released as an open-source project, and that should give some reassurance to enterprise managers who might still see open-source software as a source of trouble.
The .NET Micro Framework is designed for very resource-constrained systems, so it's perfect for embedded single-board computers. Once again, being able to develop applications for the embedded endpoints with the same tools used for desktop and back-end enterprise systems should make it easier for teams to build complex, sophisticated applications that integrate easily from end to end.
Different systems and different development environments for each level of an embedded application have been the reality for embedded developers for decades. Windows 10 IoT Core brings the potential for treating each part of the system as a piece of a whole -- a whole that's developed using a single programming environment, set of libraries, and architectural framework. It will be interesting to see what programmers do with that potential.
What are you planning to do with Windows 10 IoT Core? Ignore it? Use it in your next project? Build a business on it? Let me know -- I'm looking forward to the discussion in the comments section below.
Different systems and different development environments for each level of an embedded application have been the reality for embedded developers for decades. Windows 10 IoT Core brings the potential for treating each part of the system as a piece of a whole -- a whole that's developed using a single programming environment, set of libraries, and architectural framework. It will be interesting to see what programmers do with that potential.
What are you planning to do with Windows 10 IoT Core? Ignore it? Use it in your next project? Build a business on it? Let me know -- I'm looking forward to the discussion in the comments section below.
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