Like the other players in the public cloud market, Amazon Web Services Inc. is investing heavily to tap the revenue opportunities presented by companies’ increasing use of connected devices.

The infrastructure-as-a-service giant today announced the general availability of AWS IoT Analytics, a service for processing the data generated by devices in the “internet of things.” It’s specifically designed to address the great deal of variety that exists in how different firms are applying their machine-generated information. 

IoT Analytics can ingest transmissions from a range of connected devices, including soil sensors and industrial equipment, and then ready the data for processing. The service lets companies customize various aspects of the preparation process, such as what readings to filter, based on their needs. Users can then employ the built-in analysis tools to start looking for patterns.

IoT Analytics includes a query engine that lets workers explore machine-generated information with the same SQL syntax they would use to interact with a regular database. One of the service’s most useful features is support for so-called time series analysis. It’s a method of inspecting data from a long-term perspective that can be handy in cases where, say, an agricultural company wishes to check how crop health changes over a period of years.

For firms that have more specialized requirements, IoT Analytics provides integration with some of the other data processing services on AWS. One of them is the SageMaker artificial intelligence engine. It provides the ability to build machine learning models for analyzing high-volume data streams that would be difficult to analyze properly with manual methods.

AWS said numerous companies have adopted IoT Analytics so far. Modjul Inc., a firm focused on harnessing wearables to improve workplace safety, uses it to process data generated by employees’ activity trackers. Soil health specialist Teralytic Inc. harnesses readings from ground sensors to help farmers improve crop yields.

In parallel with its push to support companies’ growing use of connected devices, AWS is also addressing other emerging technologies. The latest fruit of the effort arrived just last week in the form of templates designed to help customers build blockchain applications on its platform.

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