15 tools to prime your Raspberry Pi for IoT

IoT is a sparkly new term for what the scientific community has been doing for a long time. But now, in its enterprise incarnation, we’re trying to place those data-gathering devices closer to the edge. Both researchers and businesses are essentially looking for “time series” data -- in other words, time-stamped data about the physical world around you. A great example of this can be found in the power industry, where companies are trying to obtain detailed information on power usage closer to their consumers, so they can build better usage models for the likes of rooftop solar.

The vast majority of IT pros I have spoken with note that the perceived development cost for an IoT solution is the primary reason management has been preventing them from pursuing it. But an IoT project doesn’t have to be costly, thanks in large part to the Raspberry Pi and its developing ecosystem. For example, the latest Interop in Las Vegas included an array of IoT demonstrations that are both low-cost and low-effort, with several leveraging zero-coding IoT systems.

Following are 15 IoT solutions centered largely around the Raspberry Pi, many of which we highlighted at Interop and a few that I’ve been exploring for use at the University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. You’ll find tools that can be combined to create meaningful solutions for getting data from nontraditional locations such as freezers, datacenter raised floors, or remote locations that offer little visibility.