Top 9 IoT Monitor Tools & Tips for Selection
Effective management and monitoring are crucial to getting the most from your IoT network. However, this can be difficult to achieve, especially if you’re dealing with an extensive network handling many devices. Having the right IoT monitor at your fingertips can make this job much easier.
However, with so many tools on the market, it can take time to determine which option is best for you. That’s why we’ve compiled this guide with helpful tips and recommendations. In it, we will review the top nine monitoring tools for IoT devices.
This guide should answer any questions you may have about choosing an Internet of Things monitor for a new IoT network or replacing your current monitoring solution.
Part 1 : How to Choose Your IoT Devices Monitor
The IoT solution you choose will depend on your specific requirements. Here are those you need to consider when making a decision:
Device compatibility
Your IoT monitoring tool should not only integrate with your existing devices and systems but also support legacy devices and new IoT devices as your network grows.
Data requirements
How much data does your IoT solution generate? Is it enough to fulfill your requirements? It should be able to store, process, and transmit this data efficiently. It should also have easy-to-use dashboards for view the data that will provide you with useful insights.
Connectivity options
Does it support Wi-Fi, cellular, or LoRaWAN? Is it reliable and consistent? This is quite important if you need to use it in a critical application. Finally, do the connectivity options meet the geographical coverage your IoT operations require?
Security
Security is a key concern for IoT devices as they share large volumes of data. This makes them attractive targets for hackers, so it is essential to find an IoT solution with the ability to track records in security.
Cost
Pick a solution that fits your budget; consider both the initial investment and ongoing expenses like data storage, connectivity, and maintenance.
What are the Top IoT Monitoring Software for 2024?
How to monitor IoT devices? There are a lot of tools on the market. Here are what we recommend:
1. AWS IoT Device Management
Everything you need to manage the full life cycle of your IoT devices, including protecting, organizing, monitoring, and registering them at scale, is included with AWS IoT Device Management. You can handle devices that are distributed over many areas via the cloud.
Highlights：Best for those who need a solution for use with broad cases because it provides for all platforms.
Main features
- Bulk registration Simultaneously register, authorize, and manage credentials for numerous devices.
- Fleet hub This central hub shows your IoT devices’ performance. You can monitor their health, be alerted to unusual behavior, identify issues, and take corrective actions.
- Remote system updates With AWS IoT Device Management Jobs, you can monitor software updates remotely for one device or the entire fleet.
Pricing: It has a free tier with 50 monthly remote actions for 1 year. You need to pay what you use and there are no minimum costs.
Security: AWS IoT Defender handles the security of your IoT network
Supported devices: Any device that connects to the AWS IoT core will be supported, including wearables, temperature, pressure, and motion sensors.
2. Azure IoT Hub
The Azure IoT Hub is a foundation solution for building a large-scale IoT network. It facilitates communications between IoT devices on the ground and the cloud. You are able to configure a complex system without writing code.
Highlights：Best for IT teams that want to manage a large-scale IoT network.
Main features
- Bidirectional communication This functionality supports cloud-to-device and device-to-cloud communication. You can receive real-time insight into the status of your IoT devices.
- Software update for IoT hub Wirelessly publish, distribute, and manage software updates. You can also deploy new features from this screen and respond to security threats.
- Automated device provisioning Automatically register new devices securely and in bulk if you wish.
Pricing: Free trial with $200 credit to use within 30 days. Price per IoT Hub unit (per month) starts from 10USD. They have different tier of prices
Security: Built on Azure’s multi-layered security features such as MS Defender for Cloud, Key Vault, Azure, and DDoS protection.
Supported devices: Retail and industrial sensors and smart home devices.
3.IBM Watson IoT Platform
This platform is suited to industrial IoT networks and complex systems. It emphasizes its collection, analysis, and visualization capabilities for IoT devices.
Highlights：Best for industrial IoT systems working with large volumes of data.
Main features
- Data collection and processingIBM is a data-first platform. It collects data securely from various IoT devices so that you can analyze it and extract valuable insights.
- Custom dashboardsYou can view IoT data and monitor system performance from a custom dashboard. You can also set up alerts of specific conditions and get notified when something changes.
- Device managementIt can onboard, configure, and update a large number of devices.
Pricing: No free trial, custom pricing. Start from USD500 per month.
Security: Authenticates all devices within the network and ensures secure communication via TLS and data encryption.
Supported devices: Industry-standard communication protocols (MQTT, HTTP, and AMQP).
4. ThingSpeak
If you have a smaller IoT project, like a simple weather station, energy consumption analysis, or smart farming, ThingSpeak is an excellent option. It is open-source IoT software.
Highlights：Perfect for smaller, research based IoT projects requiring real-time data analysis.
Main features
- MATLAB integration ThingSpeak utilized MATLAB (a data analysis programming language) to help you gain insights from your IoT data.
- A user-friendly dashboard Accessible to developers and non-developers alike.
- Automatic actions Automatically act on your data and communicate with third-party services (like Twilio)
Pricing: Free for small, non-commercial home projects. Start from 79USD per month.
Security: Security controls are relatively basic compared to the tools previously discussed.
Supported devices: It is flexible enough to support standard IoT devices like atmospheric and motion sensors, but it’s not a good fit for large-scale IoT equipment.
5.Domotz
Domotz is primarily an IT network monitoring management solution. However, its offerings now also include IoT device monitoring. It is versatile, offering monitoring functions for security cameras, POS systems, industrial IoT systems, and home/office appliances.
Highlights：Best for monitoring home and office appliances.
Main features
- Real-time appliance monitoringAutomatically detect printers, UPSs, security cameras, and PDUs in your IoT network in real-time.
- Custom alertsGet notified for situations you have input into its system.
- IntegrationsUse it with specialized IoT solutions to stay better informed about your IoT network.
Pricing: 14-day free trial. Start from 35USD per month.
Security:Basic security features such as 2-factor authentication.
Supported devices： Home and office appliances and industrial IoT sensors.
6. Datadog
As one of the best independent solutions on the market, Datadog offers comprehensive monitoring capabilities. It’s a complete solution and you can monitor IoT software performance, device hardware metrics, app logs, and network performance in one place.
Highlights：Best for IT personnel who want a unified view of their IoT network.
Main features
- A holistic view of your IoT network Datadog groups your IoT devices based on performance by region, software version, or OS. Its host map then provides a comprehensive view of the entire device fleet.
- Device alerts(Reliable) Build custom alerts for device failures and prevent you missed important alerts from numerous meaningless alerts.
- Monitor business-level metrics alongside device health This includes supply chain visibility, foot traffic, and product usage.
Pricing: 14-day free trial available. For enterprises, their price starts at 23USD per host and per month.
Security: Datadog has several security protocols, including real-time threat detection, application-level security, and automatic compliance checks.
Supported devices: It supports industrial, home, and office IoT devices.
7. Dynatrace
Dynatrace provides an enterprise-class solution for tracking the effectiveness, accessibility, and condition of Internet of IoT devices. It gives IT managers a unified perspective of their whole multi-cloud IoT ecosystem, including edge devices and user experiences.
Highlights: Best for medium to large-scale IoT projects in multi-cloud environments.
Main features
- AI-powered analytics: AI systems analyze large volumes of data at scale, automatically detect faults, and perform root-cause analysis.
- Full-stack observability: You can visualize everything about your IoT network in one place.
- Integrations with major IoT providers: Dynatrace's software intelligence covers Azure IoT Hub and AWS IoT.
Pricing: 15-day free trial, pay as you go. Their pricing varies depending on different factors.
Security: Its observability platform incorporates several useful security measures.
Supported devices: Edge devices like sensors, smart home devices, and wearables.
8. Zabbix
Zabbix is an open-source IoT platform. All users can utilise it like service providers, smart home owners, and businesses that collect a wide range of data from numerous IoT devices.
Highlights: Best for IT professionals looking to monitor their IoT deployments on any level.
Main features
- Resource utilization monitoring: Zabbix analyses how your devices utilize resources. It is an excellent tool for planning your IoT budget.
- Software monitoring: Keep track of installed software and pending updates.
- Business service monitoring: If you have an IoT deployment in a business setting, such as a cashier-less convenience store, Zabbix allows you to monitor its metrics.
Pricing: 100 percent free.
Security: You can secure sensitive information by storing it in an external vault.
Supported devices: Zabbix is compatible with almost all IoT devices except for those that use proprietary protocols.
9. Prometheus
Prometheus is also open source. It is ideal for monitoring IoT devices since it is designed to store and analyze time-series data or data gathered at regular intervals. IoT devices generate data points at regular intervals.
Highlights: Best for IoT projects that collect interval data, for instance, weather stations.
Main features
- Powerful queries: With PromQL (the Prometheus querying language), you can run complex queries on IoT data and generate deeper insights.
- Grafana integration: Prometheus allows you to visualize IoT data by integrating with Grafana, one of the top data visualization tools.
- Precise alerting: Flexibly create alerts using PromQL; the alert manager handles notifications for you.
Pricing: Absolutely Free
Security: Open source; security depends on the developer community (volunteers).
Supported devices: Devices such as Raspberry Pi, industrial sensors, and smart home devices.
Part 3: Why Is Having an IoT Device Monitor Important?
An IoT device monitor automatically collects data from devices like heart monitors and industrial sensors. You can view and analyze the collected data on dashboards and graphs. It reduces the risk of network failure, and ensures proper functionality.
Maintain your IoT device's health and longevity
These solutions efficiently identify abnormalities in the operation of IoT devices and notify you right away. This enables you to take action before additional harm is done.
Optimize your device's performance
IoT monitoring services enable you to identify inefficient devices by alerts so that you can make improvements to their operation.
Uphold data security
IoT encrypts all sent data, making it unreadable even during intercept. When security breaches happen, intrusion detection systems can find them easily.
Predictive maintenance
Let you know when to conduct maintenance and prevent unexpected downtime.
(Source:punuwat)
Conclusion
For your IoT system to continue operating at its best, IoT device monitoring is essential. We hope that you have found our advice helpful in your search for the best options available. Remember, each tool can be appropriate for various IoT network types, sectors, and IoT proficiency levels. You should select the option that best fits your use, IoT network specifications, and budget.
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