Technology is no longer about individual devices offering specific experiences and solutions to real-world problems. Today, technology is all about bringing together diverse devices, solutions, and concepts to offer a unified, more immersive, and purpose-driven solution to consumers in the simplest ways possible.
Smart is the buzzword here as IoT takes over every single market segment and industry out there. From remote patient monitoring and agriculture to launching shops where you could just legally shoplift, IoT is bringing in a new era of how we interact with elements and entities in the world.
As the demand for IoT becomes more niche and refined and with concepts like cybersecurity becoming increasingly crucial, IoT manufacturers and developers need to be very choosy with respect to the tech stack and platform they decide to use for IoT product development. Right from day one of planning and ideation, proper steps need to be taken to ensure optimum user experience and security. This is exactly what IDEs or Integrated Development Environments allow developers to achieve.
Let’s look at what they are and the top IDEs for IoT development.
What Are IDEs?
In simple words, IDEs are software development platforms that offer programmers and developers a holistic range of tools and solutions to develop their software applications. They can be used to develop web apps, mobile apps, software suites, and even web pages. They offer a unified platform for developers to write code for a specific programming platform, thereby eliminating the need for additional integrations.
To give you a quick idea of what qualifies as an IDE, here’s a checklist:
- They should offer a text editor for coding or a graphical user interface.
- Offer features like compiling, version control, debugging, code deployment, and more.
- Eliminate the need for a plugin for integration with a platform.
As far as IoT is concerned, there are several prominent IDEs available. This is exactly what confuses a lot of developers, specifically beginners. So, to make your job easier, we have compiled a list of IDEs ideal for IoT development. Let’s find out what they are.
Top IDEs For IoT Development
Microsoft Azure IoT Kit
From the team Microsoft, this is a popular IDE for IoT development that offers 6 Azure-certified IoT kits. This is a highly customizable IDE that is ideal for both beginners and advanced IoT developers. If you’re looking to develop scalable IoT solutions that are also highly secured, this is the one you need.
One of its major benefits is that it is well-structured that enables solid development of both the backend and frontend of an application. It is also highly versatile, where developers can work across several operating systems at the same time.
With boosted AI solutions, ready to deploy tools, models, and libraries, the Azure IoT tool kit is a powerful resource for IoT developers. Besides, it also features the Azure IoT Edge, which can enable app functioning even when they go offline. This makes it ideal for the development of IoT solutions for hostile environments such as offshore oil rigs, mining areas, and more.
Some of the other prominent features of Azure IoT Kit include airtight data protection, easy integration with Azure services, industrial IoT development support, enhanced AI features, and more.
Azure is ideal for the development of solutions in the retail, transportation, healthcare, and automobile sectors.
IBM Watson
With security lying at the heart of IBM Watson, this IDE offers resourceful features that help in minimizing the development time of solutions without compromising on its core integrity and security. It is hosted on the cloud. The environment not just streamlines communication among devices and makes them function more powerfully together but kindle the same essence among developers and stakeholders. From real-time monitoring to data handling, IBM Watson is highly efficient.
Some of its core features include device management, scalable and flexible connectivity options, data lifecycle management, secure communication, and more. It paves the way for synchronization among connected devices and streamlined communication, ultimately optimizing data processing and handling.
Arduino
Developed with an intention to be resourceful to students, Arduino is an easy-to-learn IDE (functions written in C++ and C) that yet manages to offer a host of features and functionalities to users. Firstly, it is cross-platform, which means it can be used for Linux, Windows, and Mac.
Secondly, Arduino lets you do anything. It has tons of different libraries and you can even select your desired board for your project or use a convenient IoT platform. It is really simple and offers sketches and tutorials to help beginners learn how to develop simple IoT solutions.
Despite having humble initial intentions, Arduino’s capabilities have eventually made it usable for high-end IoT development solutions.
Ideal for both beginners and pros, Arduino enables enterprise and lean development with excellent connectivity with diverse IoT hardware. With tons of libraries available, your idea would get the best tangible shape with Arduino.AWS IoT
This one is from Amazon as you would have guessed and is a crowd favorite from what we’ve observed. Hosted on the cloud, it enables connection among several devices and computers and supports accelerated data processing, simple extensions, and analytics.
When you opt for AWS IoT, you don’t have to set up and maintain dedicated servers as you can directly link your IoT devices to the AWS cloud. The AWS cloud is designed to handle and manage infinite messages, redirect them to end nodes and devices, track and record your devices and help you communicate with them at any point in time.
Thanks to its features and benefits, several market players around the world deploy AWS IoT for their solutions. It offers powerful cloud management solutions and seamlessly supports the connection of massive volumes of devices. Despite its core functionalities and abilities, it is cost-effective. It has excellent support modules as well that allow you to have all your questions answered almost instantly.
DeviceHive
DeviceHive is fast becoming one of the prominent IDEs for IoT development. This is more like the new kid on the block that is making heads turn with its cloud-based API. However, its recency is not considered as a limitation but a strength by its users as the IoT development community sees promise in DeviceHive. Like IBM Watson and AWS IoT, this is cloud-hosted as well.
Some of the most rising concerns associated with modern-day digital transformation such as smart homes, industrial automation, and more are conveniently handled by DeviceHive. The best part about this IDE is that it brings together Big Data, cloud platforms, embedded production, and client apps through a powerful code base, ultimately facilitating IoT/M2M communication. If developing scalable IoT solutions is one of your top priorities, DeviceHive is your go-to IDE. Regardless of whether you are an enterprise or a bootstrapped startup, you will find DeviceHive immensely resourceful.
Wrapping Up
So, these are the top IDEs for IoT development you could deploy in 2021. Though all these different IDEs are perfect in their own ways, how effective they are and how much they would support your IoT visions depends on your intention and purpose with your IoT solution.
Ideally, you should work on your goals and requirements and then pick an IDE for development. You would realize that your development process is actually productive and rewarding.
