AWS IoT Secure Tunneling: Boost Device Access & Save!

02 May, 2025

Can you imagine a world where managing your remote IoT devices is not only secure but also remarkably cost-effective? Today marks a significant leap forward as the price of AWS IoT Device Management's secure tunneling feature has been slashed by a staggering 80%, opening up unprecedented possibilities for remote device access and management.

This groundbreaking reduction in cost paves the way for businesses of all sizes to scale their secure tunneling capabilities. This means that accessing remote devices deployed behind restrictive firewalls for tasks like troubleshooting, configuration updates, staff training, and other operational duties becomes easier than ever, especially for the rapidly expanding IoT workloads on AWS.

The advent of secure tunneling within AWS IoT Device Management marks a pivotal shift in how we approach the management of remote devices. Its core function is to establish a secure, encrypted communication channel between your IoT devices and the cloud, shielding them from potential threats while enabling administrators to connect remotely, diagnose issues, and implement solutions with unmatched ease. The process is streamlined: a device tunnel is created, acting as a secure remote SSH session, providing secure connectivity to individual devices that you can then use to diagnose issues and solve in just a few clicks.

A key element of this technology is the use of a local proxy application. This application utilizes a token to establish a WebSocket connection to the secure tunneling feature within AWS IoT Device Management. This secure communication method provides for bidirectional communication to remote devices over a secure connection that is managed by AWS IoT. Moreover, it maintains your existing security levels, as it does not necessitate changes to your inbound firewall rules at the remote site.

AWS IoT Device Management customers leverage secure tunneling to access and troubleshoot remote devices situated behind firewalls. This empowers customers to swiftly diagnose device issues, implement fixes, and verify device functionality through remote shell or desktop operations. As of the 06th of July, 2020, in AWS Japan, this capability was seen as a critical solution to address the security and operational challenges associated with remote device management. The challenges of troubleshooting are made more complex when devices are remotely located or when they can't gather logs, making remote access a crucial function.

The technology now allows for concurrent client connections to a single device through the new multiplexing capability. And, to demonstrate this powerful technology, AWS offers a demo on GitHub to learn how to use the secure tunneling.

Feature	Description
Cost Reduction	The price of AWS IoT Device Management's secure tunneling feature has been reduced by 80%, making it more accessible.
Use Cases	Facilitates troubleshooting, configuration updates, training, and other operational tasks.
Secure Access	Enables secure access to remote devices behind firewalls.
Device Tunnel	Creates a secure remote SSH session to a device.
Multiplexing	Allows concurrent client connections to a single device.
Bidirectional Communication	Establishes bidirectional communication over a secure connection.
Firewall Compatibility	Secure tunneling doesn't require changes to inbound firewall rules.
Remote Access	Allows remote access to IoT devices from anywhere.
Diagnostics & Troubleshooting	Aids in diagnosing and troubleshooting device issues remotely.
Setup	Offers quick and manual setup methods.
Compatibility	Device and OS agnostic, suitable for any type of enterprise.
Agent Requirements	Requires an IoT device agent on the remote device configured with an MQTT topic subscription.

Reference: AWS IoT Device Management Official Website

The use of a local proxy application, which uses a token to establish a secure WebSocket connection to the secure tunneling feature within AWS IoT Device Management, is a vital element of this solution. For information about the different terms such as client access token (CAT), refer to secure tunneling concepts. With device advisor, you can confirm that your devices can connect to AWS IoT Core, follow security best practices, and if applicable, receive software updates from IoT device management.

The impact of this price reduction and the enhanced capabilities is substantial. Now, customers can effectively scale secure tunneling operations to manage entire fleets of devices deployed behind restricted firewalls. Whether it's for troubleshooting, pushing out configuration updates, running training sessions, or addressing other operational needs, the improved cost efficiency translates into greater flexibility and control, helping to meet the demands of growing IoT workloads on AWS.

The following shows how secure tunneling establishes a connection between your source and destination device. You can connect to the destination device from your laptop or desktop computer as the source device by using the aws cloud. The source and destination communicate by using an open source local proxy that runs on each device.

The launch of secure tunneling, is designed to offer a robust remote access solution that seamlessly integrates with AWS IoT, giving you the power to remotely access your IoT devices from virtually anywhere. With this release, customers can securely access remote devices using secure tunneling, offering a powerful toolset for diagnosing and solving issues. In addition to remote shell and desktop operations, administrators can create a new tunnel with default, editable configurations. The solution is simple: use ssh as the destination service. You can leverage the benefits of device state lambda functions, triggering them based on device states.

For example, if you use our registration workflow to register 10,000 devices, you would be charged for 10,000 devices registered.

AWS IoT Device Management continues to simplify the process of securely registering, organizing, monitoring, and managing IoT devices at scale. Secure tunneling has emerged as a critical solution to address the security and operational challenges associated with remote device management. It enables secure, encrypted tunnels that allow administrators to remotely access and troubleshoot devices without exposing them to the broader internet.

As the IoT landscape expands exponentially, ensuring secure and effective communication between these devices and platforms such as AWS IoT is paramount. Secure tunneling helps customers establish bidirectional communication to remote devices that are behind a firewall over a secure connection managed by aws iot.

Embrace the future of IoT device management with this groundbreaking advancement, enabling a more secure, efficient, and cost-effective way to manage your connected devices. Quick and manual setup methods; Criteria quick setup manual setup, all contribute to a better user experience.

How to Get Started with Secure Tunneling for AWS IoT Device Management

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How Do I Get Started With Secure Tunneling For Aws Iot Device

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