A Practical Guide for IoT Solution Architects

I authored this book to provide a simplified practical guide and insightful advice for a selected target group, which we can call 'IoT Solution Architects'. If you search the internet for the term IoT (Internet of Things), you may come across hundreds of publications in the form of books, papers, blogs and other resources about IoT on the market. This book does not repeat the information covered in those publications. It offers a unique perspective and focus based on practical experience.

My purpose is to explain IoT in the simplest possible terms using established architectural framework for creating
customised IoT solutions. This is a concise, practical, vendor and technology agnostic solution architecture guide for IoT architects

The framework covers crucial several business concerns that can guide the IoT solution architects that include security, availability, performance, speed to market and cost-effectiveness of the solutions or services at hand.

In the IoT literature, researchers have stated that these significant concerns are shared by many business executives dealing with IoT products and services. Therefore, in this book, I have reviewed these concerns systematically and presented practical advice to the IoT Solution Architects in terms of how to deal with these concerns using architectural knowledge, skills, and experience.

The focus of this book is to provide IoT solution architects with simplified practical guidance and a unique perspective. Solution architects working in IoT ecosystems have an unprecedented level of responsibility at work; therefore, dealing with IoT ecosystems can be daunting for many of us.

As an experienced practitioner of this topic, I understand the challenges faced by the IoT solution architects. Thereby, I have reflected upon my insights based on my solution architecture experience spread across three decades. In addition, this book can also guide other architects and designers who want to learn the architectural aspects of IoT and understand the key challenges and practical resolutions in IoT solution architectures. Each chapter focuses on the key aspects that form the framing scope for this book; namely, security, availability, performance, agility, and cost-effectiveness.

I have also provided useful definitions, a brief practical background on IoT and a guiding chapter on solution architecture development. The content simplified and is mainly practical; hence, it can be applied or be a supplemental input to the architectural projects at hand.