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Today, Google has announced that it’s shutting down Google Cloud IoT Core on August 16, 2023. According to Josh Taubenheim, MachNation‘s head IoT analyst, Google is doing this for two reasons.

They are:

1. Google cancels products. This is far from the first time Google has cancelled a product or discontinued support for it. Google has axed no less than 20 major product releases over the past decade (Google Product Graveyard).

2. Of the three hyperscale cloud providers, Google’s IoT offering is the weakest of the group. Google has failed to adhere to current security standards, to adequately modernise its platform, and has added few to no new features since inception. We’ve documented these deficiencies for over five years in MachNation’s IoT Application Enablement ScoreCard and our IoT Device Management ScoreCard.

What should enterprises that use Google IoT core do?

• For enterprise with expertise in cloud-native deployments on Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure solutions, migrate your Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure to a different cloud provider such as AWS or Azure that has a dedicated team and vested interest in maintaining the viability of their solutions. But don’t underestimate the effort required to do this. Without a well-recreated IoT system architecture, other parts of your IoT tech stack will cease to function when you move to a new hyperscaler.
• For enterprises loath to use another hyperscaler besides Google, move your IoT solution to a best-in-class, 3rd party solution. There are many on the market that are designed to operate with specific verticals, and just as many that are more horizontal to fit multiple use-cases. Caveat emptor… there are big differences in platforms’ scalability, performance, and features. MachNation learned long ago that only by using and testing dozens of IoT platforms can we truly understand what these platforms are capable of.
• For enterprises that still want to use a hyperscaler, you could also consider a fault-tolerant multi-cloud solution. While it may be more complex to implement and incur additional costs up-front, a multi-cloud solution for things like IoT data storage or device agent support is more reliable, flexible, and less likely to spell disaster should another company “pull a Google”.

For more comments about this big announcement, please contact Josh.Taubenheim@machnation.com

The author is Josh Taubenheim, head IoT analyst of MachNation.

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