Having trouble choosing what Arduino or Raspberry Pi hardware to use for getting started building Internet of Things (IoT) devices? There’s a lot of choices to navigate, and not all boards have integrated Wifi or Ethernet either. To help with this process, Microsoft has a few “Azure Certified for IoT” Starter Kits. These kits provide the perfect platform to get started!

Azure Certified for IoT

The goal of the Azure Certified for IoT program / certification is to create a partner ecosystem that helps businesses take advantage of Internet of Things (IoT) while taking some of the pain out of the process. Partners in the Azure Certified for IoT program are able to demonstrate IoT capabilities and market leadership to customers in a way that who’s their compatibility support for Microsoft Azure.

Azure Certified for IoT devices have already been through testing to check their compatibility with the Azure IoT SDKs and are all ready to be used to build IoT projects / devices.

Platform and Hardware Compatibility

There are a number of platforms and Operating Systems that support the Azure IoT SDKs.

Operating System Platforms

Linux
- Debian 7.5
- Fedora 20
- Raspbian 3.18
- Ubuntu 14.04
- Yocto 2.1
Android 4.2+
Windows 10 Desktop
Windows 10 IoT Core
Windows Server 2012 R2
Arduino IDE 1.6.8
mbed 2.0
TI-RTOS 2.x

Language Support

There is a huge number of language / framework platforms that are compatible with the Azure IoT SDKs. Here’s a list:

C
Node.js
Java
C#
Python

Additionally, since many of the Azure services expose HTTP / REST based API endpoints, there really aren’t many language frameworks not listed above that wouldn’t work with Azure.

Azure IoT Devices and Starter Kits

There is a really long list of Azure Certified for IoT hardware. So instead of listing them all out here, below is a list of the Starter Kits available. Each Azure Certified for IoT Starter Kit comes with everything you need to get started building IoT solutions with Azure.

Adafruit Raspberry Pi Kit

This kit provides everything needed to get started using Raspberry Pi and Azure IoT.

Buy | Get Started

Adafruit Feather M0 Kit

This kit provides everything needed to get started using the Arduino-compatible Adafruit Feather M0 board and Azure IoT. This board even includes integrated Wifi!

Buy | Get Started

Adafruit Huzzah Feather ESP8266 Kit

This kit provides everything needed to get started using the Arduino-compatible Adafruit Feather HUZZAH and Azure IoT. This board even includes integrated Wifi!

Buy | Get Started

Speed – Intel Edison Kit

This kit provides everything needed to get started using the Intel Edison and Azure IoT.

Buy | Get Started

SparkFun Thing Dev Kit

This kit provides everything needed to get started using the SparkFun Thing and Azure IoT.

Buy | Get Started

Each of the Azure Certified for IoT Starter Kits include a breadboard, a few sensors, LEDs, resistors, jumper wires and other things necessary to get started building IoT devices that can be built to utilize Microsoft Azure cloud services.

Code Samples

The Azure Code Samples site contains a large catalog of code samples using various Azure services, including the Azure IoT Hub. Additionally, the hackster.io website has TONS of community contributed “projects” that will really help you get started building those IoT devices!

Here’s a list of some of the recently featured projects on Hackster.io:

If you’re looking for simpler sample projects to run through and get familiar with Windows IoT Core and UWP development, then these projects may be a little more what you’re looking for:

The Windows Dev Center also contains a few more Windows IoT Core samples:

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/iot/samples

Happy building!

About the Author

Chris Pietschmann

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.