Azure IoT Hub is the device-facing front door of Microsoft’s cloud. It maintains a per-device device registry with identities and credentials, accepts telemetry over MQTT, AMQP or HTTPS, and supports cloud-to-device messages, direct method calls and device twins that store reported and desired properties. It also handles OTA update orchestration through device management features and connects to Azure services for storage and analytics.
A hub is provisioned in tiers that cap daily message volume, so sizing is part of the design. Teams already running Azure for business systems often pick IoT Hub for that integration; the broader comparison is in IoT platforms explained.
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