This week’s show is all about Microsoft’s new IoT security product, Azure Sphere. Kevin and I start with that, before talking about a new checklist from the Online Trust Alliance explaining how to secure your enterprise IoT gear. We then discuss acquisitions such as Nice buying a 75% stake in home security startup abode, Lutron buying professional lighting company Ketra, and the possibility that Google might acquire Nokia’s health assets. In news bits, we talk about August’s new unlocking powers, Twilio’s new SIM offering, smart pet transport and VMware’s new lab setting for its IoT software. Kevin shares his thoughts on HomeKit sensors from Fibaro and we answer a question about doorbells.
Our guest this week is Galen Hunt from Microsoft, who has been working on the Azure Sphere product for the last four years. He shares why Microsoft attacked IoT security with a hardware, OS and cloud product and shared how far Redmond is willing to go on openness. He also talked about the revenue model, support life and other practical aspects. You’ll walk away from this one a lot smarter.
Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Galen Hunt, partner managing director at Microsoft
Sponsors: Forgerock and Yonomi
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Another Super Awesome podcast.
I’m curious if the reference to Nice should be pronounced like ‘niece’ as in the city in France rather than ‘nice’?
When you mentioned that the new Microsoft Azure Sphere offering included a MCU based system that was running Linux on a Cortex-M processor, I got real curious as to how they did that. I’m not aware of a Linux distro that can run on a Cortex-M, but then the A9 was mentioned then it made sense. Looking at the specs for the MediaTek MT3620, it is running dual Cortex-M4F cores along with a A9 (ARMv7-A) core where the A9 runs the Linux OS and the M4F cores are used for I/O and GPIO processing as well as secure boot. The A9 is similar to what is run in the older Raspberry Pi 2 where the newer ones run a Cortex-A53 Quad-core 64-bit CPU. What is interesting is that the MT3620 also has an Andes N9 32-bit RISC core for the dual-band Wi-Fi radio. I’m looking forward for any development board they come out with so I can give it a spin.
Thanks for the info on VMWare Pulse IoT Center. I’ve heard talk about running virtual machines on small systems such as a Raspberry Pi or even running something like Docker, so the IoT Center does look interesting. I’ve worked quite a bit with VMWare products in the past and this looks like a smart move on their part. I do wonder how VMWare feels about the Azure Sphere name considering VMWare already has their vSphere platform.
Thanks for entertaining me at least one day a week on my daily Walkabout.
Cheers,
Jon
I had asked and the PR person told me it was Nice as in friendly not as in the city in France. But I had that same thought.
Nice!. Seeing the website, that makes more sense considering the ‘niceforyou’ in the URL name. The other way would be a bit creepy.
I should never question the pro.