The drive to make data-driven decisions shapes the strategy of many companies. However, this dream has a problem; just because you need to make a decision does not mean you have the data to make it. Often these decisions require data from sources typically unconnected to the internet. This could be an architect determined to understand how the construction of her building is progressing, or a manufacturer wanting to live their best industry 4.0 life. It's not uncommon for companies to find this journey to become “smart” is a long one; with difficult ethical ground to cover, or prohibitive costs associated with procuring the necessary equipment. However, the development of cheap and accessible IoT devices allows for the gathering of data from anything to be more within reach than ever.

This session will look at efforts to build proof-of-concept IoT systems. We will discuss our (continuing) journey of using and managing hardware and the problems we faced along the way. The focus will be the software stack. Azure IoT Hub is used for device management, with Power BI supporting the front end. However, the centerpiece is Delta Live Tables - allowing us a method of near real-time analysis of our data. We will discuss the advantages of using Delta Live for this, and how we wish to extend our IoT systems in the future.