Internet of Things News of the Week, April 28 2017

It’s a big week for IoT middleware: This week Dell unveiled EdgeX Foundry, an IoT middleware product that will be run through the Linux Foundation. I covered this back when it was Project Fuse and again this week on the podcast. The goal is to create a framework for connecting devices that won’t require everyone to rewrite integrations each time they are connected to a new service or another device. A few days after the EdgeX Foundry project launched, The Eclipse Foundation introduced a new version of its Kura IoT middleware that rivals the EdgeX effort. We may not get clear standards, but the next layer up might get less messy.  (EdgeX Foundry, Eclipse Foundation)

Cloudflare wants to secure your connected devices: Securing connected devices is hard so Cloudflare, a company that helped create a viable security model for cloud-based architectures, has dived in. Cloudflare this week launched Orbit, a service that creates “the equivalent of a VPN” between a device and the cloud. When a device is compromised Cloudflare will block it from malicious actors. The downside is that this is for device manufacturers to install on their products going forward, which means there are still hordes of dangerous devices out there. (Wired)

Scaling infrastructure for IoT requires new thinking: Mark Thiele crunched the numbers on the estimated number of servers required to support IoT devices and came up with 400 million new servers by 2020! This seems like an impossible number. It would require 4,000 new data centers each consuming 50 megawatts of power. He doesn’t discuss what needs to change, but everyone should read his breakdown of the problem. (LinkedIn)

This may be a new architecture for IoT: I’ve been wanting to write about functional programming, AWS Lambda and why serverless computing matters for the internet of things for quite some time. The idea is that instead of keeping an Amazon instance constantly running in case of a job, a service like Amazon’s Lambda spins up only when needed. Using a smidgen of compute to send an alert when a motion sensor is activated makes more sense in a severless architecture.  For a nice overview of this read the blog by Redmonk’s James Governor. (RedMonk)

Get this news summary in your inbox every Friday when you sign up for Stacey’s newsletter.

Amazon Echo or Google Home? For developers, the answer is the Echo for now with Google Home coming later if it’s successful. But Amazon is making a big effort to keep its development process as easy as possible to ensure developers keep flocking to the platform. It’s clearly taking a page from Apple’s success with the iPhone, where high-quality apps kept users happy on the platform, even as Android hardware improved.  (The Information)

Comcast’s Xfinity home is a hit: In its first quarter financial call Thursday, Comcast said it had 1 million subscribers to its home automation and security platform, twice the number it had back in August 2015 when it last reported the data. Now it appears Comcast is breaking out the Xfinity home data for investors as it becomes a larger part of its business. This growth may be organic but could be aided by its purchase of iControl, which finally closed during the quarter. Meanwhile, other ISPs have not fared as well offering similar home automation and security products. Comcast’s biggest rival in this field is Alarm.com, which supports more than 5 million subscribers. (Comcast)

Focus on the outcomes, not the code: When it comes to policing bias in our algorithms Microsoft argues that it’s the results that matter, not code transparency. I tend to agree. The way current machine learning works, computer scientists allocate weights to certain inputs to influence the code. Too much focus on one input and not enough on another is what leads to mistakes such as Google Photos labeling a black person as a gorilla. The challenge will be making companies share those inputs and keeping track as they change. (Quartz)

What is Hajime? This mysterious botnet is somewhat similar to Mirai because it breaks into unsecured connected devices, but instead of establishing a botnet to attack other networks, Hajime establishes a command and control network by disabling certain firewalls and opening ports. Then it just sits there. (ZDNet)

Remember the lack of security in healthcare? I wrote about the topic last week, and I imagine you’ll see me do it again soon. But if you want more information, check out the coverage of Josh Corman of I Am The Calvary speaking at a Boston event. Pay close attention to the lifespan of the currently infected devices. (Threatpost)