What is Azure Digital Twins?
Azure Digital Twins is an IoT platform service that creates digital representations of physical environments. The service models relationships between devices, sensors, spaces and processes as a knowledge graph and enables real-time synchronization with the physical world.
Core Features
- Modeling with DTDL (Digital Twins Definition Language) for typed objects and relationships
- Live synchronization with IoT devices via Azure IoT Hub
- Graph-based queries for navigating complex environments
- Event routing for reactive architectures with Event Grid
- 3D visualization through integration with Azure Maps and Unity
Typical Use Cases
- Smart Buildings: Modeling buildings with rooms, sensors and equipment for optimized facility management
- Industry 4.0: Digital representations of production lines for simulation and optimization of manufacturing processes
- Infrastructure: Monitoring utility networks such as electricity, water or telecommunications
Benefits
- Open modeling language based on JSON-LD standards
- Seamless integration into the Azure IoT ecosystem
- Scalable from single devices to millions of twins
- GDPR-compliant in European Azure regions
Integration with innFactory
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, innFactory supports you with Azure Digital Twins: from modeling your environment to IoT integration and production operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Digital Twin?
A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a physical environment. Azure Digital Twins models relationships between objects, spaces, sensors and processes as a knowledge graph.
What modeling language does Azure Digital Twins use?
Azure Digital Twins uses DTDL (Digital Twins Definition Language), a JSON-LD based language for defining models, properties and relationships.
How does Digital Twins integrate with IoT Hub?
IoT Hub sends telemetry data to Azure Functions, which then update Digital Twins. Changes can be propagated to downstream systems via Event Grid.
What does Azure Digital Twins cost?
Billing is based on operations: queries, reads and writes are charged separately. For typical IoT scenarios, costs are just a few euros per month.
