Microsoft's free online course now lets you get certified to be an IoT developer — and there are many new changes coming this year

• Microsoft just announced its Azure IoT Developer Speciality training and certification course is now available for free.
  
• Even though the platform was unveiled earlier in January, it was previously only available in beta.
  
• As an Azure IoT Developer, you’ll have to work with data engineers and other partners to ensure business integration along an IoT device’s entire life cycle — from setup to maintenance once the device goes live.
  
• Microsoft recommends that if you’re going to sign up for this course, you already have some level of experience using Azure’s services using its IoT solutions.

If you’re a developer looking to get on board the Internet of Things (IoT) train, Microsoft just announced its Azure IoT Developer Speciality training and certification course is officially available online — for free — at Build 2020. Even though the platform was unveiled earlier in January, it was previously only available in beta.

As an Azure IoT Developer, you’ll have to work with data engineers and other partners to ensure business integration along an IoT device’s entire life cycle — from setup to maintenance once the device goes live.

You’ll also be in charge of designing Azure IoT solutions like the device’s topology — how and where it’s placed within the business’ infrastructure — connectivity, debugging and, most importantly, security, considering how attractive IoT devices are to hackers for the additional computing power. Lastly, you also learn how to ensure the device works seamlessly when networking on the edge.

But there’s a catch

Microsoft recommends that if you’re going to sign up for this course, you already have some level of experience using Azure’s services using its IoT solutions — which includes being familiar with data storage options, data analysis, data processing and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) options.

This also means being familiar with the code portion of an IoT solution in at least one of the languages that Azure supports like C#, Node, C, and Python.

There’s also a perk

“Azure IoT Central is gaining several new features, including cross-service integration with Azure Sphere and IoT Edge,” announced Microsoft. It also plans to introduce Indoor Mapping powered by Azure Maps — which will enable customers to model floorplans of private spaces — a diagnostics public preview and public safety app template for cross-industry applications to provide real-time surveillance security.


Another improvement that’s scheduled for the coming year are new operating system (OS) capabilities — including reducing the OS size by 40%, relieving more computing power. Somewhere down the line, Windows will converge with Windows 10 IoT Core and Windows IoT Enterprise.

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