4 New AWS IoT Services In 2023 With Huge Customer Potential

From new capabilities in AWS IoT Device Defender and IoT TwinMaker to new location services for devices, AWS’ IoT leader Yasser Alsaied tells CRN about new opportunities for partners in 2023.

With Amazon Web Services launching a slew of new data and location service capabilities in late 2022, the Internet of Things (IoT) is a “major opportunity” for AWS partners in 2023 who want to take data and cybersecurity to the next level for customers, said AWS’ IoT leader Yasser Alsaied.

“Channel partners need to learn about these new services because it will help them reimagine what they can offer to their customer [in 2023],” Alsaied, vice president and head of AWS IoT, told CRN.

“If you think about how to connect the world, it’s all about connectivity. But you need a common place where this information is available, secure, reliable, and scalable—and the cloud is the right place,” Alsaied said.

From AWS location services for IoT devices to new capabilities on AWS IoT Device Defender and TwinMaker, Alsaied said there are huge services revenue opportunities for partners now available around unlocking IoT and better leveraging data for customers.

Yasser Alsaied joined the Seattle-based cloud market share leader about one year ago after a 14-year stint at chipmaker Qualcomm.

His last position was vice president of Qualcomm’s IoT business unit.

“My movement from semiconductor to the cloud is the natural movement to cover chips to the cloud, and everything in between,” Alsaied said. “So joining AWS was very exciting for me.”

Alsaied is advising system integrators, MSPs, consultants and AWS partners of all shapes and sizes to double down on driving IoT services sales in 2023, which can increase margins and stickiness with customers.

In an interview with CRN at AWS re:Invent 2022 last month, Alsaied breaks down five IoT services that AWS partners should leverage in 2023.

New AWS Device Location Services For IoT

Last month, AWS launched IoT Core Device Location, a new managed feature that enables customers to choose the appropriate location technology that works within their business and engineering constraints, without relying on Global Positioning System (GPS) hardware.

AWS also launched Location Action, a new capability to route latitude and longitude data from IoT devices to Amazon Location Service. The feature makes it easier for software developers to add geospatial data and location functionality to IoT applications.

“These are IoT location services based on one of the most accurate location services in the world, which is Amazon Location Service,” said Alsaied.

“For example, a person is sitting at a control panel and an alarm goes off at some sensor. You will get the longitude and latitude of that sensor. And you’d immediately be able to send it to a person near that location [to fix it],” he said. “You’ve saved time, money, and attended to a safety hazard immediately that could have cause big harm if it wasn’t attended too immediately.”

With AWS location data, partners can optimize their customers business processes, simplify and automate maintenance efforts, and unlock new business use cases such as asset tracking solutions across verticals including retail, farming and transportation, Alsaied said.

IoT Device Defender Now Has AWS Security Hub

The cloud giant recently integrated AWS’ IoT Device Defender security management service with its AWS Security Hub.

Alsaied said the integration now allows customers to ingest alarms and their attributes from AWS IoT Device Defender features in one central location, without custom coding. Additionally, the new feature helps offload or reduce the complexity of managing disparate workflows from multiple security consoles when they review devices monitored by AWS IoT Device Defender.

“Device Defender means that every IoT device connected—and we have hundreds of millions of those—if there is a security issue on it, AWS customers now have a Security Hub. We added an IoT alarm to that hub,” he said.

“So you don’t have to deal with IoT alone and your cloud system alone,” said Alsaied. “If you have any security threat on any of your, let’s say, millions of IoT devices—you can see it right there immediately and you can deal with it.”

AWS’ IoT leader said partners can add “tremendous value for customers” in 2023 with IoT Device Defender around IoT security management for large fleets or devices.

IoT TwinMaker Synchs With IoT SiteWise

Last month, AWS revealed that IoT TwinMaker will support asset synchronization with AWS IoT SiteWise, with the goal to make it easier for SiteWise customers to bring their assets and asset models into TwinMaker.

Alsaied said approximately 90 percent of data generated in factories are “still locked on-premises.”

“Imagine if that data gets unlocked and available for the enterprise and for factories—so many use cases can be optimized,” he said. “For example, updates to equipment, security patches and even maintenance schedule changes. That is what IT services like TwinMaker with SiteWise give.”

AWS customers can now use IoT TwinMaker without having to recreate IoT SiteWise assets and asset models, and any updates will be automatically synced.

“TwinMaker is a digital twin at scale. It allows you access to all the sensors data, the cameras data—so imagine what you can build for your customer that is useful and add value with all that data,” said Alsaied. “This is great for a channel partner looking to update something like IoT manufacturing for a customer.”

AWS IoT FleetWise

AWS IoT FleetWise, which recently became generally available, is a great way for partners to add value to their customers, Alsaied said.

“FleetWise unlocks the data from the car, train, plane, or anything moving—and utilize the collection of that data to the cloud in a way that either the car manufacturer, or the fleet management company, or the road authority can better understand the flow of traffic, congested points and risk areas,” he said.

“So imagine if this data is just sitting in the car and not shared across the cloud? There is tons of information that is available but never utilized,” Alsaied said. “Unlocking this data is a big opportunity for partners.”

AWS IoT FleetWise helps customers collect, transform, and transfer vehicle data to the cloud in near real time. New insights gained can allow companies to quickly identify potential maintenance issues, make systems smarter, or use analytics and machine learning to improve autonomous driving.

“There’s a lot of this data that once you reimagine what you can do with it by using the artificial intelligent algorithms, machine learning, by running just normal statistics—it will give to the customer ideas,” he said.