London Tube has new stop at Azure Station

Microsoft has claimed that while the rest of the industry is falling for or projecting Internet of Things (IoT) hype, it is quietly delivering on the concept's promise right under many Reg readers' feet in the form of a new Azure-powered monitoring rig for the London Underground. Speaking at a press event in Sydney today, …

[Steve Davies 3]

I see that TFL's boundary has grown...

Blackpool vs Middlesbrough is classed as being 'Around London' or is MS Azure using Apple maps for its data?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I see that TFL's boundary has grown...

It's how the Americans learn geography....We're that tiny little island across the water from New York and within our borders are London and Near London, on the adults versions of the map they also mention bir-ming-HAM and Endin-burrow.

[Fred M]

Re: I see that TFL's boundary has grown...

Don't forget that quaint little tennis playing town of Wimbleton.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I see that TFL's boundary has grown...

Yes, I recently had the great pleasure of telling an American entourage at Piccadilly Circus clutching tickets for that day's game that Manchester City football ground was not within walking distance. The average American is just so obtuse....

[Tom 7]

Re: I see that TFL's boundary has grown...

If bing is anything to go by then a UK postcode defines an address to three or four counties.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I see that TFL's boundary has grown...

At least they didn't use Java - people might actually want to use the UI!

[Steve Button]

Incredible timing from Microsoft PR.

With the tube strike and all.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Incredible timing from Microsoft PR.

Just like may other of the real world displays, you put up a recording of the good day, to hide the real stats...

A/C, because I know call centres that do this when they have potential customers in.

[Piro]

Re: Incredible timing from Microsoft PR.

Certainly is, and that's actually a UI that's clean and futuristic! Because unlike most Metro applications, it actually isn't just a screen of whitespace, it contains useful data. Huh. Nice mock up!

[AlbertH]

Re: Incredible timing from Microsoft PR.

It's actually very funny: TfL are in the latter stages of migrating EVERYTHING they do away from proprietary software! Open Source now rules the roost. Boris couldn't believe the multi-million IT bills that TfL (Traffic for Losers) run up, so an edict was issued, and desktops are getting a strange, corporate Ubuntu spin.

Windows (and everything Microsoft) is seen by TfL as expensive, unreliable and insecure. They've recently had an IT security audit that made them panic.....

[Vic]

So it's Nagios with a pretty screen, then?

Except for the Coke machine spy-cam, of course :-(

Vic.

[Robert Grant]

IoT dashboards ARE all about data presentation

The demo was impressive, but also not much more than a nice dashboard for existing sensor systems.

What else do you want? Automatic event logging etc will happen somewhere else in the chain, and the sensors are in place.

[Magnus_Pym]

So what are the 'things'

The 'Internet of things' surely relies on 'things' being on the internet. It's not clear if the "existing sensors" are separate entities accessible through the internet. If they are then as 'existing' sensors they already were an internet of things if not then then they just have an interface to a sensor array.

Also: Not sure where Azure comes in.

[Paul Kinsler]

Re: So what are the 'things'

Since this is the London Underground we're talking about, I think by IoT they mean either "Internet of Trains", or "Internet of Tubes"

[Steve Foster]

Re: So what are the 'things'

I think you'll find it's actually "Intransigence of T'unions".

[Don Jefe]

Re: So what are the 'things'

The Internet of Things is like Cloud, AI, Secure, Open, Privacy, Anonymous and scads of other terms that have emigrated from Marketing to IT.

Those terms don't have clearly defined meanings outside of small(ish) groups so you can make them mean whatever you like. It's not even doublespeak or dishonest. It is closer to gibberish, mental instability or someone providing you a Latin translator because you're going to Belize. No matter what you think is being said the speaker and the person beside you can interpret it differently unless everyone involved has previously agreed to use the same definition.

I've generally found that the best way to deal with it is apply your own definition and use that as the basis for any questions you send back upstream. It's fun and exciting (<---There's two more) and as a rule any time someone has absconded with the reasonable definition it is because the subject isn't remotely fun or exciting, so it's win win for you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Internet of Things... Just the latest hype / buzzword, which doesn't describe anything new. Much like the "cloud" it's being operated in.

[P. Lee]

To Quote The IT Crowd:

"We're all going to die!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it IS different. It must be or Don would claim he invented it! The problem is that the 'difference' is buried deep down in the technology and hard for marketing to explain.

Data has been gathered from sensors since sensors existed, its how you collect, manage and disseminate that to the right people in the right form at the right price that is the core to IoT.