Google Cloud IoT Core goes on the end-of-life list

Google has dropped a bombshell on users of its Google Cloud Platform IoT Core service: it will be discontinued a year from now.

Its only public statement so far is a notice on the IoT Core site: “Google Cloud IoT Core is being retired on August 16, 2023. Contact your Google Cloud account team for more information.”

A Hackernews post provides the text of an e-mail sent to users: “We’re writing to let you know that Google Cloud’s IoT Core Service will be discontinued on August 16, 2023 at which point your access to the 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.

“Your current IoT Core Services will remain available through August 15, 2023, unless you terminate your usage of IoT Core at an earlier date.”

Launched in beta in September 2017 and offered for general availability in February 2018, the IoT Core service was pitched as “a fully managed service for securely connecting and managing IoT devices, from a few to millions”.

Its initial focus was on data collection and analysis, but in December 2018, IoT Core received the ability to send commands to devices, and activity logging.

In February 2019, Google added a gateway capability that allowed actions to be performed on behalf of IoT devices (such as authentication, when the device lacked the capability).

Google’s decision has drawn criticism from users.

On Twitter, Narinder Singh complained: “Can't believe how backwards @Google @googlecloud still is wrt to enterprise.  Yes, they are better at selling now, but they are repeatedly saying through their actions you should only use the core core parts of GCP”.

At least one company, ClearBlade, has jumped in with a product it says is a “seamless replacement” for GCP IoT Core.