Beginner: Bluemix programming languages for analysis of IoT data

Question

I am a h/w engineer interested in using Bluemix for an IOT application. Other than C, I do not know any programming language but I am willing to learn whatever necessary. My application is as follows:

My sensor nodes would upload data to an existing h/w server that has the capability to upload the data to an external SQL server. I want to analyze this data on the SQL server on a periodic basis and generate reports that I can publish to a mobile application or even a web-page to begin with.

Questions:

1. Is it possible to implement the "SQL server --> Data analysis --> Report generation + data visualization --> HTML(?) Publish" flow on Bluemix?
2. What modern/efficient languages can I learn in order to do this with the least effort?
3. Is there a standard implementation/example that I can use as reference for the flow described above?

Answer 1

This question actually has little to do with IoT--that just happens to be the source of the data--and focuses on how to process data for analysis, report generation, and publishing. You can do this mostly using services in Bluemix such that there's little if any code to write and so the programming language of the runtime may not matter.

First, to store the data, you could use SQL Database or dashDB. The former is "just" a database, whereas the latter includes R and R-Studio for data analysis. Second, for report generation, you can use Embeddable Reporting, which has Cognos (e.g. IBM Cognos Business Intelligence reports) built in.

The way Cloud Foundry in Bluemix works, you'll need to create a runtime with some language, then bind the service instances to it so you can use them. But you may not have any code to write, in which case the language doesn't matter. In case you do need to write some code, choose whichever language you think you can learn most easily. Java programmers prefer that, but it requires compiling; they may also prefer Go. You'll probably have an easier time with Node.js and PHP, which are popular interpreted languages.

A couple of resources for further info:

• "Embed rich reports in your applications" shows how to use Embeddable Reporting with dashDB.
• "Leverage IBM Cognos on IBM Bluemix using the Embeddable Reporting service" shows how to use Embeddable Reporting with SQL Database.
• "Embed Reports and visualize Data in your Bluemix Applications" gives an overview of both approaches.

BTW, Bluemix also has a neat service called Internet of Things, which helps connect your Bluemix app to lots of things all over the Internet. Sounds like you already have this handled for this example, but as you continue to use Bluemix for IoT applications, you might want to look into this service too. The Internet of Things Foundation Starter helps you get started using Node.js, Cloudant, and Node-RED.