Publish to AWS?

Thanks for your input @neilh and @vogelrnws.  I work for a state agency, so I have limited options when it comes to IT related endeavors, especially things that are new (like technology from the last 20 years). I am basically trying to follow pathways that have been lightly trodden, rather than attempt to blaze my own trail.

I am in the process of building some new monitoring stations with Mayfly loggers and Hydros-21 sensors pushing data over the cell network with 4G LTE  modems. I have to use our existing Verizon accounts to add data plans using the M2M service, which actually seems pretty reasonably priced. I don’t mind using MMW for real-time data access, however my reason for wanting to push data to AWS is that we can leverage our existing account with ESRI to ingest data files from AWS into GeoEvent Server, which would enable us to make customized dashboards to display our real-time monitoring data. I know there are other options, but I first want to see if I can go the AWS/ESRI route because this workflow already has momentum at another agency in my state, and I can sort of “draft” behind that effort.

Personally, I am open to other options (like Thingspeak), however the hurdles in setting up new contracts for IT related services are almost insurmountable. Its not even a matter of cost ($650 a year is a pretty easy sell). However, I basically need to prove that this project will not work with our existing IT tools/products/services before anyone will entertain another option.

It took me 18 months just to purchase 1 Mayfly board due to all the bureaucratic and procurement protocols that are in place!

Thanks,
Dan

@vogelrnws, We are using 4G LTE modems that are recommended by EnviroDIY with the LTE Bee Adapter. Verizon will send us SIM cards once we give them a list of IMEI numbers for the modems. Fortunately, our agency has access (with approval) for certain AWS storage/computing services, so I can take advantage of this since this project is relatively small, data-wise. I will only have 7 sensors sending data at 15 minute increments.

The main hurdles I need to address are items 2 and 3 in the original post on this thread. Basically, setting up a publisher script to push to an amazon endpoint, and configuring that endpoint to process the JSON data streams that get sent every 15 minutes.

@vogelrnws, thanks for the digi link… this does seem like something that could work very well to send information to AWS from a XBee modem. There are still several steps to figure out in terms of getting a Mayfly program to execute the python code that is on the modem, perhaps like calling a function?, with the sensor data as the message formatted in a JSON string. These details are way beyond my capabilities, so I can’t really pursue this option on my own. I am hoping to come up with a solution that utilizes existing modular sensor libraries with some minor tweaks. Maybe this is unrealistic, but I have neither the time or ability to develop a novel solution from scratch, on my own. I am very thankful to be able to take advantage of all the existing work and know-how in this community.  I will keep researching options and report back if I find a solution that is within my technological reach.