Google Cloud IoT Core Now Available in Public Beta

Google's Cloud IoT Core services, which help enterprises securely connect and manage a wide range of internet of things devices around the world, are now in public beta after launching as a private beta in May.

As part of the public beta, Google Cloud IoT Core gains several helpful new features, including the ability to use your own device security keys to verify ownership of device keys, as well as the addition of secure connections for IoT devices over HTTP, in addition to the standard MQTT protocol. Also new in the public beta is the ability to store a logical device representation of an IoT device, even when it is not connected, which aids monitoring and device use.

The new features were inspired by enterprise IoT users who sought the additions, wrote Indranil Chakraborty, product manager of Google Cloud, in a Sept. 27 post on the Google Cloud Platform Blog.

"At Google I/O, we introduced Google Cloud IoT Core, a fully managed service on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to help securely connect and manage IoT devices at scale," wrote Chakraborty. "Since then, many customers across industries such as transportation, oil and gas, utilities, healthcare and ride-sharing have used the service and provided us with insightful feedback."

Cloud IoT Core on GCP allows enterprise users to centrally manage IoT devices and build rich applications for them by integrating with Google's data analytics services, he wrote. Using Cloud IoT Core, users can automatically have their system configurations, data, system scalability, availability and performance managed using GCP standards.

Under the private beta program, users have worked on several innovative projects, including transportation and logistics firms which used it to proactively stage the right vehicles in the right places at the right times to meet varying workforce needs, wrote Chakraborty. In addition, utility customers utilized the beta program to enable monitoring, analysis and prediction of consumer energy usage in real-time, he added.

Pricing for the Cloud IoT Core offering varies depending on the volume of data exchanged with Cloud IoT Core. Enterprises may register as many IoT devices as desired and are charged only when the devices connect to and exchange data with Cloud IoT Core, according to Google. Companies trying the service can get free access for the first 250MB of data volume per month.

Pricing for 250MB to 250GB of data volume per month is $0.0045 per megabyte, which drops to $0.0020 per megabyte for data volumes between 250GB to 5TB per month. Data volumes over 5TB per month are charged $0.00045 per megabyte per month.

Cloud IoT Core provides enterprises with new operational insights that can help businesses react to new conditions and make needed changes in real time related to their IoT devices, according to Google. Cloud IoT Core is aimed at enterprises which rely on industrial devices located around the world, such as sensors, conveyor belts, farming equipment, medical equipment and pumps, to make it easier and more efficient to manage and track them.

Google is working with a growing group of partners to expand and refine Cloud IoT Core services for customers, including Allwinner Technology, Arm, Intel, Marvell, Microchip, Mongoose OS, NXP, Realtek, Sierra Wireless and SOTEC.