Overview of nRF Cloud¶
nRF Cloud is a set of services enabling you to make power efficient devices and manage them over the lifecycle from device manufacturing to retirement. You can select which services you need and how you want to connect your devices, or use services cloud-to-cloud, keeping your devices connected to your own service.
The platform is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a collection of integrated microservices. You and your devices can interact with nRF Cloud services through a web portal as well as REST, MQTT, and CoAP APIs. You can also combine these depending on your use cases.
nRF Cloud is suitable for a range of users, including hardware or firmware engineers building a new product with Nordic Semiconductor silicon, device fleet managers, and web or mobile application developers using the nRF Cloud REST API to build a custom user interface for an IoT solution.
Security Services¶
nRF91 Series SiPs are shipped with an identity set by Nordic Semiconductor, which enables device authentication and remote provisioning. Therefore, you do not need to manage keys during the device manufacturing process and can securely provision devices over-the-air once they are in the field.
Device connectivity¶
Device connectivity is a key feature of nRF Cloud. nRF Cloud integrates with multiple protocols and connection methods to handle end-to-end operations across a spectrum of mechanisms. For a more detailed explanation of these options, see Choosing a protocol.
If you manage devices through your own cloud service, nRF Cloud also supports cloud-to-cloud use cases through the REST API.
Location services¶
Locating a device is a key use case for many applications and services. nRF Cloud Location Services offers power-efficient positioning through GNSS, Wi-Fi, and cellular technologies. You can use the service to locate devices directly, provide assistance and prediction data, or pass positioning data to your own application or service. You can test Location Services in a cloud-to-cloud setup using an evaluation token.
Device management¶
Device management ensures that your devices stay operational and secure. nRF Cloud device management is a ready-made suite to operate and maintain device fleets. It lets you monitor a device's state and operations using message history, alerts, and logs. You can then plan improvements and deploy new firmware over-the-air.
nRF Connect SDK libraries for nRF Cloud¶
The nRF Connect SDK provides ready-made libraries for easy integration of your device application. The SDK provides multiple sample user applications, such as nRF Cloud Multi-service, that demonstrate the features of nRF Cloud.
See Additional resources for a list of samples and libraries for the nRF Connect SDK that integrate with nRF Cloud.
About the nRF Cloud documentation¶
The nRF Cloud documentation is sorted by topic in the left sidebar. Each section contains conceptual and guide pages according to each topic.
See the following pages if you have never used nRF Cloud before:
- Getting started with devices on nRF Cloud for instructions on how to create an nRF Cloud account and connect your first device.
- nRF Cloud plans and billing for an explanation of the cost structure of nRF Cloud services.
- The changelog for a summary of changes to the nRF Cloud system and documentation.
See Support to report any issues regarding this documentation.