Virtual representation of a physical device, system, or process that mirrors its real-world counterpart in real-time using IoT sensor data. Like having a digital mirror that shows exactly what's happening with your physical equipment, enabling simulation and prediction.
An aircraft manufacturer creates digital twins of jet engines, using sensor data to predict maintenance needs and simulate performance under different conditions before implementing changes on real engines.
AWS IoT TwinMaker and Azure Digital Twins are purpose-built digital twin platforms. Google Cloud and OCI don’t have a single, directly equivalent flagship “Digital Twins” service; implementations typically combine IoT ingestion, data platforms, and analytics/AI services.