Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed a series of new IoT features in a bid to bolster its platform leading into its big annual conference next week. The updates include Alexa Voice Service integration, fleet provisioning, and configurable endpoints for AWS IoT Core; container support and a stream manager for AWS IoT Greengrass; and secure tunneling for AWS IoT device management.

The cloud provider’s advancements in IoT come as many mobile network operators deploy 5G services, but AWS IoT VP Dirk Didascalou said the two are not intrinsically related. “5G is an important element but it’s not the Holy Grail of IoT,” he said. “With or without 5G, there’s a ton of stuff that we’ll do in IoT.”

5G does, however, introduce many new use cases for IoT that can benefit from the additional capabilities of 5G, Didascalou explained in an interview with SDxCentral.“I think IoT will only work if we start understanding that the Holy Grail is interoperability — that you can work with multiple standards,” and it shouldn’t matter what communication standard, radio frequency protocol, or device is involved.

“We see ourselves more or less like a utilitarian provider for all of the technologies when it comes to software,” Didascalou said. “Our approach for IoT is to develop and deliver to our customers and partners all of the fundamental basic building blocks, software, services, and even operating systems that they can [use to] build any IoT application they want in any vertical.”

The technical impediments to IoT adoption are being reduced, but cultural change remains a nagging challenge, according to Didascalou. IoT “requires a cultural change in companies and industries because old technologies just don’t work anymore, old separations of duties don’t work anymore,” he said.

“There’s a ton of things that these new technologies enable companies to do, but they want someone to handle that, and that’s one of the biggest impediments we’ve seen,” Didascalou explained. Oftentimes, organizations that are the fastest in adopting new technologies, tools, and processes that are also at the forefront of IoT, he said.

AWS IoT Greengrass, which is designed to extend compute and other AWS capabilities to the edge, now includes support for Docker containers. By allowing customers to package their applications into a Docker container image, AWS says enterprises will be able to build IoT solution into edge devices while reducing the cost of rewrites and development cycles.

Likewise, the new stream manager for AWS IoT Greengrass enables organizations to collect, process, and export data streams from edge devices and manage the lifecycle of that data to minimize development time and application complexity, according to AWS.

The Alexa Voice Service integration for AWS IoT Core can offload compute and memory workloads to the cloud, thereby lowering costs by up to half, according to the cloud vendor. The service is comprised of three components: shifting media retrieval, decoding , and management from a physical device to the cloud; a new set of protocols for transporting audio-based messages between devices connected to AWS IoT Core; and a software development kit (SDK) that enables customers to interface with the device’s audio controls using the same AWS IoT Core connection.

ASW IoT Core fleet provisioning automatically sets up devices with unique digital identities upon first connection, configurable endpoints make it easier for organizations to transition from self-managed infrastructure to AWS IoT services, and secure tunneling allows customers to create a secure remote communications session between two devices, according to AWS.