California-based Mender.io has released an integration with Microsoft Azure IoT Hub for more secure and robust IoT device management at scale.

Mender.io provides OTA software updates management for connected devices.

Intended for IoT product managers, software architects and embedded developers, this Azure integration offers provisioning of devices in the Mender server by automatically connecting them to the Azure IoT Hub. The key benefit is users can provision and manage devices from one device-centric web user interface, reducing user complexity and device-side credentials that need to be protected resulting in stronger security.

Azure Device Twins is also nested in Mender.io so users can avoid making their own homegrown device portal for merging data. Instead, they can manage all their device information through one Mender web interface, making it easier and more efficient. Users can also use Mender.io for Azure IoT Hub-generated information to define software deployments.

When Mender.io and Azure IoT Hub are combined, enterprise users get all the functionality needed to achieve secure device software lifecycle management through a single pane of glass. This includes the ability to update target devices in various ways including:

• Update rollback in the event of an update failure;
• Phased rollout;
• Synchronised updates; and
• Delta updates

Without the integration, a user would need to find a way to transfer the credentials from the Azure backend to each and every device, making it a painful process, specifically when scaling up a device fleet. 

Mender CTO Eystein Måløy Stenberg said: “It saves time and hassle by providing a single interface for device life cycle management and automatically provisioning devices to be ready to use, so you can focus on creating valuable services for your customers instead of building infrastructure.”