Google Cloud plans to shut down its Cloud IoT Core service, which was touted as a fully managed IoT connectivity service, in one year.
The company’s primary public statement thus far has been a notice posted on its IoT Core website that reads: “Google Cloud IoT Core is being retired on August 16, 2023. Contact your Google Cloud account team for more information.”
Among its extensive cloud portfolio of offerings, Google Cloud lists just two that are specific to IoT: IoT Core and an edge solution for AI/ML.
When Enterprise IoT Insights reached out for comment on the announcement, a Google spokesperson responded: “Since launching IoT Core, it has become clear that our customers’ needs could be better served by our network of partners that specialize in IoT applications and services. We have worked extensively to provide customers with migration options and solution alternatives, and are providing a year-long runway before IoT Core is discontinued.”
Google Cloud introduced the IoT Core service in public beta form in 2017 and commercialized it in 2018, around the time that it was also touting its previous IoT offering, Android Things. In the spring of 2018, Google said in a company blog post that its Android Things 1.0 release included “long-term support for production devices, so you can easily take an IoT device from prototype to commercial product.” But as of a February 2019 blog post, Android Things was being “refocused” from a general platform for supporting IoT devices at scale to “a platform for OEM partners” to build consumer devices like smart TVs with Google’s digital assistant on-board, as well as some support for non-commercial experimentation with IoT. The Google Cloud IoT Core service was offered up as a new alternative for developers who were seeking to commercialize IoT products in 2019 and wanted “secure device connectivity at scale.”
Google’s Cloud IoT Core release notes page has no updated information since February of 2019, when its gateway feature was made generally available.
A HackerNews posting shared the text of an email sent from Google Cloud to IoT Core users, in which the company said that a year from today, access to IoT Core Device Manager APIs “will no longer be available. As of that date, devices will be unable to connect to the Google Cloud IoT Core MQTT and HTTP bridges and existing connections will be shut down.”
According to the post, Google recommended migrating to an “alternative service” and that companies using IoT Core contact their account managers to “learn more about Google Cloud partners that offer alternative IoT technology or implementation services that meet your business requirements.”
Responders to the HackerNews post lamented Google track record of sunsetting services, or service depreciation.
“This was my second biggest fear after waking up to a ransomware attack,” one poster wrote of the rug being pulled out from under IoT Core. “It’s hard to imagine anyone trusting Google for IoT again. I will certainly put them at the bottom of my list for any other infrastructure I develop against in the future, and ensure that we have a documented exit strategy should it come to pass.”
“It’s important to ‘own’ what you can in your stack otherwise this vendor-driven-churn is forced on you and is outside a schedule you control,” shared another poster. “Sure, 365 days is a lot of time to migrate — which, IME, leads to ‘we can fix this later’ which then leads to ‘oh crap!'”
