Utilities and Energy
Data Engineering, Integration, and Cloud Adoption

Enabling Near-Real-Time IoT Insights for Adra using Azure SQL

Butterfly Data upgraded AWS to Azure, enabling near-time sensor data via TTN & SQL, with scalable, user-friendly insights for Adra Housing.
Seamless

connection to The Things Network

Scalable

Azure infrastructure

Independent

system management

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“Butterfly Data successfully delivered our project to integrate The Things Network (TTN) with our Azure infrastructure, ensuring seamless real-time data transfer and secure storage to a SQL back end. They met all our technical and security requirements, followed best development practices, and provided comprehensive documentation. Their professionalism and expertise made the process smooth, and we are very pleased with the outcome.”

Richard Nightingale, Delivery Lead

Challenge

Adra Housing, the largest housing association in North Wales, was piloting an IoT sensor programme in test homes to monitor environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, illumination, CO₂, movement, door status) as part of its low-carbon, net-zero housing goals.

They had been using a legacy setup on AWS paired with InfluxDB, but this no longer aligned with their infrastructure strategy. The challenge was to build a more scalable, secure system hosted on Microsoft Azure, with near-real-time streaming of sensor data from The Things Network (TTN) into an Azure SQL backend, making data immediately accessible, future-proofed, and easier to analyse.

Solution

Butterfly Data designed and deployed an end-to-end IoT data integration pipeline within Adra’s Azure environment. The new system included:

  • A secure SQL database for centralised storage and management of incoming data
  • Integration with The Things Network to capture and decode IoT sensor feeds, supplemented with metadata for richer context
  • Encrypted streaming into Azure IoT Hub, supported by API calls to enhance usability
  • Near-real-time data transfer, making sensor readings accessible almost instantly
  • Pre-built data views (such as average readings, last uploads, and device location) to simplify dashboard development
  • A scalable architecture designed for future growth, enabling Adra to integrate new sensor types with ease

Comprehensive documentation and knowledge transfer ensured that Adra’s team could operate, maintain, and expand the platform independently.

Impact

The project was delivered on time and without disruption, giving Adra a robust, scalable IoT platform aligned with its Azure infrastructure strategy. The move to near-real-time data access represents a step change from the legacy system, enabling proactive rather than retrospective monitoring of environmental conditions.

By enriching and structuring the data, Butterfly Data has reduced the manual processing burden and made insights more accessible to both technical and non-technical users. Adra can now identify issues earlier, such as variations in air quality or temperature, helping the organisation improve tenant wellbeing while advancing its net-zero housing goals.

“Full marks to Buttefly Data for quickly understanding what we needed and delivering in a focused and timely way. To be honest, I was concerned that what we needed wasn't possible and they surpassed my expectations. Well done to all the team!”

Geraint Jones, Product Owner

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