enterprise buyers’ guide 2018 – which iot platform?verticals: we provide them with the necessary...

Enterprise Buyers’ Guide 2018 –Which IoT Platform?

PLATINUM SPONSOR

45IoT Now - Q3 2018

46 IoT Now - Q3 2018

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to mature and starts to gain traction across most

vertical and regional markets, the role of the IoT platform is sharply in the spotlight. IoT

platforms are a means by which organisations can manage the complexities of IoT

deployments, simplify their operations and accelerate time to market. Cyril Hullin, the vice

president of product marketing at Sierra Wireless, tells Robin Duke-Woolley, the chief

executive and founder of Beecham Research, that the platform approach is well understood

but the variety of choices now available mean organisations need to choose their platforms

with care to ensure they are the best suited to their needs

How to select the right

platform to build on for

sustained IoT success

INTERVIEW

SPONSORED INTERVIEW

47IoT Now - Q3 2018

Robin Duke-Woolley: What are your thoughtsabout the IoT market and the stage it hasreached today?

Cyril Hullin: It is really now that IoT starts to bepervasive in all industries. Now everybodyunderstands IoT will have an impact in manyindustries, if not all of them, and that it will changethe business and operational models.

The market has undergone many initial trials,which is good, and it is now in a maturing phase.However, some players are learning the hard waythat things might be a bit more complex than theywere expecting. It is being proven that in manycases it is more difficult to achieve the efficiencylevels and expected benefits, such as the desiredreturn on investment. Many players are discoveringit is more complex to achieve the right level ofagility and come up with technically viablesolutions and applications.

And there are many reasons for that; in somecases, it has to do with lack of real control of the

total cost of ownership (TCO) of solutions usershave launched, or the many efforts involved inassembling a technical solution that is not focusedenough on the business application which iscrucial to deliver the benefits of the connecteddevices. Quite often, the focus on getting thedevices connected and working is given a higheremphasis than the application side.

Many people who want to deploy IoT have lots ofquestions and clarifications they are seekinganswers to. Most of these revolve around the waysto connect the devices in the most efficient way.For example, what are low power wide areanetworks (LPWANs) and what is the unlicensedLPWA? What is CAT-M or narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT)? What do each of these mean to me, forexample in a roaming context?

We in the industry collectively have a role toeducate the market, inform about the realities ofIoT, help things move faster and help theecosystem reach its maturity.

RD-W: What about the maturity that yourcustomers at Sierra Wireless have reached withIoT?

CH: Without a doubt, things have evolvedsignificantly. Compared to the situation just a yearago, among our customers there is a growingneed for hybrid solutions. Customers want todeploy both low data and high data rate IoTapplications, not just one of these, so thespectrum of their needs is wider now.

RD-W: Can you give some examples of this?

CH: Take Ingenico, which has been deploying IoTfor payment terminals for many years now. Thatsame customer now has more needs than simplyconnecting point of sale (POS) terminals. Theywant applications that are richer in data, forpurposes such as advertising.

Someplayers arelearningthe hardway thatthingsmight be abit morecomplexthan theywereexpecting

▼

Cyril Hullin, Sierra Wireless

Robin Duke-Woolley,Beecham Research

IoT PLATFORMS

48 IoT Now - Q3 2018

In the utilities space, countries that started withsmart metering around 15 years ago are nowlaunching their second wave of smart metering.This involves moving from smart meteringapplications of a few kilobytes per month tohundreds of megabytes per month.

In the automotive space, where Sierra Wireless isvery strong, we are seeing a very fast-movingecosystem. In the past, the industry just requiredlow data telematics and basic applications likeeCall. Now there is a strong trend towardsconsumer electric vehicles. This requires onboardtelematics, the need for firmware to receiveregular updates, and entertainment applications. Inaddition, there are various regulations to complywith. All these require increasingly advanced IoTdeployments.

RD-W: How do you see Sierra Wireless’ role inthe IoT market developing?

CH: Sierra Wireless is an IoT pioneer. Historicallywe had a vision for horizontal solutions, throughplatforms and through connectivity offerings.Sierra Wireless has a services business unit amongour units which include the hardware business thatis responsible for offering routers/gateways andconnectivity modules. Sierra Wireless isparticularly focused on original equipmentmanufacturers (OEMs) that operate in a number ofverticals: we provide them with the necessarytoolbox to build their vertical solutions. In theservices business unit, through our recentacquisition of Numerex, Sierra Wireless providespre-built managed asset tracking solutions for awide variety of different use cases.

Through Numerex we have a strong presence inspecific verticals, such as security and alarmcommunications, in asset tracking and in tankmonitoring. In each vertical, we offer a set ofhardware devices and all the necessary platform-based solutions to address customers’ needs.

RD-W: IoT platforms have come to be a largearea of the market and there are multipleplayers. How is AirVantage, Sierra Wireless’ IoTplatform offering, different?

CH: Sierra Wireless offers a cloud-based IoTplatform under the name AirVantage. AirVantageenables enterprises to deploy and manage global

wireless IoT services for monitoring assetshipments using a single pane of glass, meaningone screen to access data for all connecteddevices.

The background of AirVantage is in devicemanagement. In the very beginning, we wanted todevelop a platform that would handle all devices,monitor their state and health, making sure thefirmware and software running in these works well.Later, AirVantage evolved to include managing theconnectivity of devices, assigning and managingSIMs in them, and offering services such astroubleshooting, maximising the quality of service(QoS) (with various technical key performanceindicators (KPIs) and catering for smart SIMdeployment. It is also important to mention thatwith AirVantage, we are providing a homogeneousand unified user interface (UI) to end-users, whichallows them to customise their application rulesand introduce new application capabilities.

There is also our Ready-to-Connect proposition,which embeds a Smart SIM profile based on theembedded SIM/embedded universal integratedcircuit card (eSIM/eUICC) specification into cellularmodules and gateways. These are then managedthrough AirVantage. This means that the customer,instead of using AirVantage to order SIMs andactivate SIMs subscriptions, can be offeredgateways and cellular modules with pre-embedding eSIMs in a subscription model. Theseitems can be automatically paired to the device atthe factory level and the customer can thenactivate the device and the SIM to monitor it as asystem within the AirVantage interface.

RD-W: Which types of customer and verticalmarkets does AirVantage address?

CH: AirVantage addresses many different marketverticals and types of customer. For exampleparticularly in the North America region, for thesecurity and alarms applications, AirVantage isprimarily used by municipalities and judicialauthorities, which deploy their own hardware andhave dedicated technical teams. This is a veryprecise route to market for us. For other types ofcustomers such as manufacturers and integratorsof alarm systems, we sell through reseller channels. In the tank monitoring area, Sierra Wirelessdirectly addresses end users like oil and petroleumcompanies and other chemicals distribution

INTERVIEW

▼

49IoT Now - Q3 2018

AirVantage significantly shortens the development cycle and thetime to market for its users compared with other solutions“

companies, which own and manage fleets oftrucks and which install tanks in business andresidential properties. We have a directrelationship with all these specialist players.Asset tracking is for us the broadest area due tothe great diversity of customers. The applicationsextend from fleet management to cold chainmonitoring. We address these areas both directlyand indirectly, making sure we invest enoughresources. We offer packaged solutions thatinclude hardware and platform components thatfit the customers’ specific needs.

RD-W: The IoT platforms market is currently verycrowded. What is the unique advantage thatAirVantage has to offer in the market? What arethe key competitive advantages of yourplatform?

CH: The platforms market is indeed very crowded.Platform solutions can be complicated for users,resulting in them having challenges monetisingtheir applications. With AirVantage, the keydifferentiator is that it is very homogeneous andcoherent, offering a broad set of applicationprogramme interfaces (APIs) that allow users tohandle many dimensions of the customers’ needsthrough an easy to use interface. AirVantagesignificantly shortens the development cycle andthe time to market for its users compared withother competing solutions.

RD-W: Does the customer have to have SierraWireless only devices to use AirVantage?

CH: No, and this is an important point. Manycustomers will have a legacy with other cellularmodules. The Sierra Wireless platform-baseddevice management solution is flexible andadaptable, quite suitable for customers who havehad a life before Sierra. We have been getting verypositive feedback from customers, especially sincewe reshaped our selling model about a year ago.We made it simpler and easier to understand:bundled hardware with connectivity, all thenecessary documentation for customers todevelop applications, continuous support throughintegration and a consulting service if needed.

RD-W: What is the role of partnerships in IoT ingeneral and in Sierra Wireless’ business inparticular?

CH: Partnerships are very important in IoT and forus, partnerships in the area of professional serviceshave helped us a lot in delivering good results tocustomers that require complex integration withintheir solutions. For this purpose, we have anongoing partnership with companies such as PwCfor consulting and technical integration purposes.We have worked with other players in order topre-integrate their offerings in AirVantage andenable us to respond to customer needs. Forexample, AirVantage can be pre-integrated with allmajor public clouds, such as Microsoft Azure,Amazon AWS, SAP Hana and IBM Watson. In thatway, if a customer has their ERP system in Azure,then automatically we adjust their settings and alldata is inserted in this third party cloud, pre-installed and pre-integrated.

RD-W: What are the next steps for AirVantageand for Sierra Wireless?

CH: We are continuously developing AirVantagefeatures and capabilities. Among the importantfactors for us is the increasing value of data andthe need to be able to process device data at thenetwork edge. We are improving our platformoffering in that direction, which we think isincreasingly important for IoT applications,particularly those using LPWAN connectivity.

We are also committed to an ambitious roadmapwith regards to the market verticals we address.Our big focus is in asset tracking, where we aremoving very fast in developing a set of trackingdevices that fit well with an ecosystem ofapplications based on our platform. SierraWireless’ asset tracking solution combines smartdevices and diverse networks to wirelessly track,monitor and manage a variety of high value assets.

We are also advancing our Smart SIM propositionand our role as a full mobile virtual networkoperator (MVNO). We plan to expand our corenetwork from Europe and US to Africa, LatinAmerica and the APAC region. Today we aredeploying smart SIM in more than 120 countries.We are very satisfied with the coverage we haveachieved with smart SIM. This product is alsobased on patented technology that allows forgreat flexibility and the delivery or really high QoSwhen it comes to selecting the most appropriatenetwork automatically.

www.sierrawireless.com

IoT PLATFORMS

50 IoT Now - Q3 2018

IoT PLATFORMS BUYERS’ GUIDE 2018

This aim becomes challenging quite quickly. Forexample, when success means processing largeamounts of data in real-time to support currentbusiness operations. It can be more challengingstill to integrate these new real-time data flowswith traditional batch update data typical of ITsystems already in use. Those challenges increasefurther when these data flows need to inter-operate smoothly and securely across severaldifferent business operations, all in real-time.

To cater for these and other challenges andcreate an IoT solution that will stand the test oftime, IoT platforms are increasingly being viewedas the starting point to build on. Put simply, theaim of an IoT platform is to reduce the time andcost of getting new IoT solutions built andimplemented by using components alreadyavailable and being used in other IoT solutions. Ittakes advantage of the fact that the majority ofwhat is needed for most IoT solutions is the sameand does not need to be reinvented for everyapplication: it can be predesigned and madeavailable through an IoT platform. The platformthen also provides the means for implementingthose elements that are specific to the particularapplication, as well as customising andconfiguring the solution for the specific need.

So how do business users, often referred asadopters, go about choosing the right IoTplatform for them?

What is an IoT platform?An IoT platform is a software middleware suitethat facilitates secure monitoring, control andanalysis of device and sensor behaviour in thefield. In essence, it provides an enabling layerbetween these connected devices/sensors anduser applications. There are two main parts of acomplete IoT platform – the part that managesthe physical connectivity to the devices andother systems to ensure that essential data iscollected, and the part that processes the data.Although both parts are required for a completeIoT solution, they are often provided by differentvendors, reflecting their different areas ofexpertise.

There are several layers to an IoT solution andthese are becoming increasingly complex asmarket needs develop. The architecture can beshown in a variety of ways, with Figure 1illustrating the main elements: the externalsensors/actuators/devices/gateways connectedto the platform via networks and otherinfrastructure. Within the platform itself, there areessentially four layers – communication services,device management, data management andapplication development. Above those layers arethe user applications themselves – the elementsthe user actually sees. Across all of these layers issecurity, which binds them together to ensurethere are no weak points either within each layeror across the layers. Indeed, that securitycapability must also bind the sensor and networklayers not included in the platform itself – afurther crucial consideration in platform design.

Which IoT platform isright for you?

For an increasing number of businesses, IoT has moved from being a nice-to-haveto a strategic necessity. This means a new emphasis on introducing IoT quickly

and extending it within the business, writes Robin Duke-Woolley, the chiefexecutive of Beecham Research

▼

Robin Duke-Woolley,Beecham Research

51IoT Now - Q3 2018

INTRODUCTION

While this describes how IoT platforms arestructured, the vast majority of them do not caterfor all layers, at least not yet. For example,providing communication services is a completelydifferent task to application development and todetailed analytics of device data. Each platformvendor has their own expertise and to get asense of what they offer, Beecham Research hasdefined seven IoT platform categories, as follows:

1. Communication centric – offering a strongfocus on connectivity management capabilities2. Device management centric – offering astrong focus on device management3. Data management and analytics centric –designed to provide strong data management,orchestration, and analytics capability4.Application development centric – enablingapplication development on different types ofdevices.5.Vertical centric – designed to support thedevelopment of IoT solutions in specific sectorsor sub-sectors (examples could be smart city,manufacturing)6.Consumer IoT centric – similar to verticalcentric above, but with a strong focus onconsumer IoT applications such as Smart Home.7. IoT developer centric – offering solutions forIoT developers (software and hardware)

These categories are not mutually exclusive, sothat a vendor’s offering may belong to more thanone of these. To take one example, Living PlanITis vertical centric because it is focused on smartcity solutions. However, for those solutions it alsofocuses on data management and analyticscentric capabilities.

IoT Pilot: towards choosing the right platformBeecham Research has been tracking theM2M/IoT platforms market since 2008, whenthere were just 14 of them on the market. Nowthere are over 450. The chart in Figure 2 showsthis growth and that there is going to be quite achoice of platforms for a while.

As noted above, the IoT platform is an importantstarting point for adopters planning their IoTsolutions and there is quite a choice. In addition,such platforms are going through a fast rate ofdevelopment with updates, acquisitions and re-brandings occurring frequently. They arebecoming increasingly sophisticated as well asmore specialised. Yet making the right choice is

important to save time and unnecessary expenselater.

IoT Pilot, created by Beecham Research and IoTGlobal Network, is an online tool available atwww.iotglobalnetwork.com/iotpilot. It is free touse and designed to assist this choice byenabling adopters to better understand theoptions available to them. It is the first fully-independent online tool to match adopter needswith IoT platform capabilities. While it does notseek to recommend one platform over others, itdoes seek to narrow the field to a level thatadopters can manage effectively. It means theycan commence a more valuable dialogue with themost appropriate vendors at an earlier stage.

The user accesses IoT Pilot through anauthentication process. Via drop down menus,the user is asked to answer a set of questionsthat help to define the IoT solution required. Thetool then matches those needs with a platformdatabase and selects those most likely to be ofinterest. A short list of suitable platforms is thendisplayed, giving access to further detail for eachplatform including purpose-designed heat mapsthat provide a visual guide to the characteristicsof each platform.

Having got to a short list of potentially suitableplatforms and associated vendors, the user canthen discuss specific IoT solution needs in moredetail.

Application Development Layer

Applications

Device Management

Data Management (Storage, Orchestration, Analytics)

Communication Service Layer

Sensors – Actuators – Devices – Gateways

Networks/Infrastructure

Sec

urit

y

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

02005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Figure 1: Elements of anIoT platform architecture

Figure 2: The number of IoT platforms in themarket – source: Beecham Research

George Malim: What are some of the topchallenges plaguing IoT implementation today?

Dima Tokar: From a business standpoint there areultimately three key challenges keeping IoTimplementations from going forward and goinginto production. These are: figuring out the returnon investment (ROI)-positive solutions, gettingexecutive buy-in and generating business valuefrom the data collected.

It’s easy enough to come up with visionary ideasbut the tricky part is identifying which of thosesolutions make sense and drive revenue, increaseprofit or build better relationships with customers.

Once you’ve done that and figured out whatyou’re going to be doing, deploying an IoTplatform is quite a transformational thing. Itimpacts many parts of the business. These areobvious changes in IT and engineering, but IoTsolutions also affect marketing, sales and financeso all executives need to have an understanding ofwhat’s going to happen and be all-in on that.Finally, once you are well on your journey andhave collected data, knowing what to do with it isnot always easy. It typically requires help frompeople who understand data science and

analytics to get to the best outcomes. Not allorganisations have teams of data scientistsavailable at their disposal, so this is potentially alot more challenging and costly than peopleexpect.

Bill Dykas: What we’ve observed from mostsophisticated customers is that it’s not alwaysabout only IoT, it’s about integrating IoT with theexisting business process. Changing these can befraught with complexities and, in addition, toensuring the executive buy-in that Dimamentioned, IoT solutions involve distributionnetworks, have to address where a product islocated and work with resellers and dealers.Ensuring support for predictive maintenance isvital but it’s not necessarily the only technicalchallenge.

GM: What IoT platform specific dilemmas exist?

DT: There are hundreds of self-described IoTplatforms and MachNation has identified thatthere are also many different types of IoTplatforms. This makes it difficult to create anapples-to-apples comparison to find a platformthat checks all the boxes across a set of businessand technical requirements. This is a difficult place

The tricky part is identifyingwhich of thosesolutions makesense and driverevenue, increaseprofit or buildbetterrelationshipswith customers

SPONSORED INTERVIEW

▲

52 IoT Now - Q3 2018

INTERVIEW

IoT platform selection – use insight fromindustry experts to help you decideAs more and more organisations invest in IoT and look to either buy or build IoT platforms to handle theirdata and manage their devices and services, it is becoming more complex to identify the right approachfrom the slew of IoT platforms, now numbering in the hundreds, that are on the market. In addition, as IoTservices scale up from connecting a small and easy-to-manage to a large number of devices, the decisionbetween buying or building your own platform becomes less clear cut. Dima Tokar, co-founder and head ofresearch at IoT analyst firm MachNation, and Bill Dykas, IoT Platform product manager at Telit, an IoTsolutions provider, tell IoT Now managing editor, George Malim, how businesses can assess both thequantitative and qualitative merits of IoT platforms to determine the best approach and the mostappropriate product selection

TELIT

53IoT Now - Q3 2018

for enterprises to start from and most will seekexpert advice before moving forward.

Compounding the challenge, once you’ve foundthe platform that meets your needs, you’ll thenfind someone internally who asks, “Why are webuying a platform when we could build one?”This is a common scenario in many IoT platformselection processes today.

BD: Whether you build or buy, there’s a scale andscope question to be considered. If you’re doingsomething with tens of devices, it’s quitestraightforward but what happens if tens becomethousands of devices?

In addition, you’re rarely attaching to one type orpiece of equipment. We’re supporting companiesthat have to attach to the likes of Siemens,Rockwell, Mitsubishi and a variety of otherdevices that don’t have standard protocols.Further to this, when you build a platform it takesfocus away from IoT innovation because yourefforts are directed towards IoT platformdevelopment, not IoT service development.

GM: What are some of key considerations forbuying vs. building an IoT platform?

DT: The build vs buy decision is a commonconversation we have with enterprises. We try tobreak apart quantitative versus qualitativemetrics to address this. Quantitative metrics areclearer, we suggest enterprises consider the costof hardware, infrastructure and software-as-a-service (SaaS) and, if they’re building their ownplatform, the cost of labour. Build your own willrequire a significant investment in labour whereason the buy side you’ll typically be dealing withSaaS pricing. It’s important to put some numbersdown to understand each alternative.

On the qualitative side, it’s more complexbecause it’s harder to quantify time-to-market,the level of customisation required and yourorganisational core competencies. For instance, isyour organisation in the business of best-in-classsoftware platform development, compliance orsecurity?

GM: How can an off-the-shelf IoT platform helpaccelerate deployment?

BD: Building a platform requires technicalresearch, building application programminginterfaces (APIs), and implementing devicespecific protocols every time you want toconnect a device to the platform. Off-the-shelfplatforms built for large-scale deploymentsalready come with APIs and device protocols. Myexperience with some of our customers is thatthe process of getting started is much faster withan off-the shelf platform, allowing them to spendmuch more time on the development of theirservices.

DT: Another benefit of an off-the-shelf platformis that it allows you to shop around. This is trulyimportant in a world of IoT platforms, wheremarketing is not the reality. All platforms are notcreated equal so going with an off-the-shelfapproach enables you to engage with a couple ofvendors and to test drive each, so to speak. If youbuild your own platform, you’ll be 12-18 monthsdown the line before you discover what you mayhave missed at the start.

GM: What are the most important capabilitiesorganisations should look for in an IoTplatform?

BD: At a base level, key capabilities like devicemanagement and data management are neededbut you also need to think of the edge. When youstart doing that the device management mightinvolve firmware updates but also edge modelupdates which could deal with event logic orevent streaming processes and, in some cases,artificial intelligence or machine learning movingto the edge.

Data management is also critical because, onceyou’ve onboarded a device you can’t just fire andforget. The device is now part of a criticalbusiness process. You therefore have tounderstand what connectivity is used, whatdevice is used and how to normalise the datastreams so useful data can be digested.

GM: What resources are available to help in theIoT platform decision process?

BD: We have worked with MachNation to create avery practical IoT Platform Build Versus BuyDecision Guide. This guide includes a free, easy-to-use total cost of ownership (TCO) calculator.Telit also provides professional services to helpcompany’s scope out their requirements and aidin the decision process

DT: When it comes to platforms there are lots outthere, but most tend to excel in a niche area.There are a lot fewer that can support yourdevice management, your data management andyour edge needs. Look to those threefundamentals to create a shortlist. We profileplatform vendors in our ScoreCards but keep inmind that hands-on testing is key. Check out ourIoT platform test environment, MIT-E, where wetest drive these platforms ourselves soenterprises can pick up from there.

IoT Platform Build Versus Buy Decision Guide:http://info.telit.com/iot-build-vs-buy

TCO calculator:https://www.machnation.com/iot-platform-build-or-buy-tco-calculator-sponsored-by-telit/

Dima Tokar, MachNation

Bill Dykas, Telit

Sierra Wireless is a hardware and modulesmanufacturer as well as a software vendorcompany based in Canada, with officesworldwide. The company was founded in1997 and since then it has developedvarious pioneering products and wirelesssolutions for the IoT market. Sierra Wirelessholds more than 400 patents.

Sierra Wireless is a leading promoter ofembedded SIM (eSIM) solutions and offers acomprehensive IoT platform, namedAirVantage. Also operating as a MobileVirtual Network Operator, its connectivity issupported by more than 80 networksglobally.

Sierra Wireless has an extensive network ofenterprise partnerships, including Verizon,PwC, Google and others, as well as variousR&D partnerships with universities.

About the AirVantage platformIn 2008, Sierra launched AirVantage, itsIoT/M2M Cloud Platform.

AirVantage is mainly a connectivity anddevice management platform, servingapplications across all verticals.

However, the platform extends beyondthese capabilities, to applicationdevelopment - Legato is a developers’community initiative of the company –integration and support services as well as the offering of hardware components, suchas routers and gateways.

Key areas of specialisation are the industrialand the automotive sectors, with greatexpertise in tracking, tank monitoring,safety and security applications. Otherverticals of applications include retail withpoint-of-sale (POS) systems and payments,Logistics with fleet management and cold

chain monitoring, and the energy sector withsmart metering deployments among others.

Key differentiators

1 End-to-end IoT solutions include complete, productised platforms for device management, data orchestration as well as software development kits (SDKs) for device manufacturers2 Sierra Wireless is particularly focused on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that operate in a number of verticals, providing them with the necessary tools to build their vertical solutions3 Smart SIM proposition: Sierra Wireless’ core network extends globally in America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions, currently deploying smart SIMs in more than 120 countries. 4 Ready-to-Connect proposition: with Ready-to-Connect, a Smart SIM profile based on the eSIM/eUICC specification is embedded into cellular modules and gateways that are then offered to customers in pre-packaged solutions5 Flexible and adaptable platform solutions, based on AirVantage: The Sierra Wireless platform-based device management solution is flexible and adaptable, quite suitable for all types of customers, including those who do not have Sierra’s hardware components. A homogeneous and unified user interface (UI) enables customers to customise their application rules and introduce new application capabilities, minimising the development cycle and the time-to-market6 Superior support services for customers: Sierra offers all the necessary documentation to customers to develop their applications, as well as continuous support through integration and a consulting services throughout the deployments’ lifecycle.

About Sierra Wireless

www.sierrawireless.com

HEAT MAP

54 IoT Now - Q3 2018

AirVantage Heat Map of platform services

AirVantage Platform

Connectivity management(coverage, protocol, support,

QoS, eSIM)

Application development(APIs management,

developers community,documentation)

Device management(device orientated analytics,

monitoring, updates,configuration, scalability)

Data management(data integration &

orchestration, analyticsalgorithms)

Innovation & Partnerships(patented technologies,innovation partnerships)

Support services(training & consulting

services, system integration,24/7 support)

Extensive set of services Standard set of services Limited set of services

SPONSOREDHEATMAP

AVSystem is a provider of softwaresolutions for various industries. Thecompany is especially known for itsexpertise in the area of large-scale IoTdevice management, multi-protocol devicemanagement for the telecommunicationsindustry as well as Wi-Fi value addedservices. AVSystem is also an evangelist ofopen-standards such as LwM2M and TR-069 and provides embedded clientsolutions for hardware manufacturers.AVSystem’s solutions have more than 100customers.

About the Coiote IoT Coiote IoT is a portfolio of IoT solutionsprovided by AVSystem that answers theneeds of device management and dataorchestration in Internet of Thingsenvironments.

The Coiote IoT Device ManagementPlatform offers complex devicemanagement features and telemetry datahandling using the LwM2M devicemanagement protocol. The product allowsfor automatic detection of new devices andenables, among others: remoteconfiguration, monitoring, usermanagement, firmware over theair/software over the air (FOTA/SOTA)upgrades, provisioning devices – with theoption to group them to enable easy masstask execution.

Apart from flexible workflow mechanisms,user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI)and representational state transfer (REST)application programming interface (API),Coiote IoT Device Management offers theability to be integrated with other platformsand systems, such as the Coiote IoT DataOrchestration platform.

Coiote IoT Data Orchestration is anintegration platform that enables thecollection and orchestration of datareceived from various sources – devices andplatforms. The end goal is to use existinginfrastructure to create new supplementaryservices for various IoT verticals with simpleand automated workflows. The platform canbe used to provide advanced workflowmechanisms, monitoring and alerting,business intelligence, map visualisation andcustomisable dashboards. The solutionsthat are based on Coiote IoT DataOrchestration enable connectivitymanagement, asset tracking and serviceactivation.

AVSystem’s Coiote IoT portfolio iscomplemented by the Anjay LwM2M SDK,an open-source solution for enablingLightweight M2M on any kind of device.

Key differentiators

1 Complete IoT portfolio – including complete, productised platforms for device management, data orchestration as well as SDKs for device manufacturers2 Expertise in carrier-grade device management, supported by over a decade of experience in managing devices for tier 1 service providers worldwide3 Proven best support for LwM2M – the industry standard protocol for IoT device management4 Flexibility and openness of the solutions – ability to integrate with other platforms and create complete IoT ecosystems5 Fully developed interfaces providing the ability to rapidly deploy any IoT service without investing additional resources into front-end interface development.

About AVSystem

Coiote Heat Map of platform services

Coiote IoT


QoS, eSIM)











www.avsystem.com

55IoT Now - Q3 2018

HEAT MAP

SPONSOREDHEATMAP

Robin Duke-Woolley: What is the role thatAVSystem wants to play in the IoT market? Whathas been your story so far and how does yourvision fit with IoT?

Slawomir Wolf: We have the ambition to be a keyvendor in IoT ecosystems. We have a strongoffering in device management where we utilisethe Lightweight M2M (LwM2M) specification toempower IoT devices. It is a great technologybeing adopted widely by telecoms operators. Oursolution – Coiote IoT Device Management – is atop-ranking device management platform. Oursecond product – Coiote IoT Data Orchestration –is more focused on data processing, presentation,reporting and integration with different systemsor data sources. It can readily be an integrationlayer for several systems and it is designed tofulfil enterprise needs with carrier-gradescalability. Either product can operate asstandalone, in-house installed solutions or hostedin the cloud. Our value is that we come from thetelecoms world where standards andinteroperability are really important. With morethan 100 deliveries completed worldwide fordifferent telecoms players, we bring toenterprises features like flexibility, reliability,security and scalability out of the box.

RD-W: The IoT market is currently very crowdedwith different vendors offering differentsolutions at different levels. What is the uniqueproposition that AVSystem has to offer in themarket? What are the key areas of specialisationfor you?

SW: This is very true. The market is crowded andyou can easily find more than 400 different IoTplatforms. Our vision is simple – we are focusedand specialised. You cannot do everything. Ourarea of expertise is device management andintegration. If you add here our embeddedendpoint for device management using LwM2Mprotocols – Anjay.io – and the LwM2M softwaredeveloper kit (SDK) which we open sourced foreverybody, most probably we are the onlycompany on the market able to offer such atrinity of products.

I have been saying for many years: if you want tobuild or introduce your IoT or services around IoT,you need to first think about device management.There is no IoT without device management. Allconnected devices must be securely managed.Security fixes need to be applied in firmware bydoing firmware over the air (FOTA). Securetelemetry channels for data you want to collectfrom devices need to be established andmaintained. All of this means you need to have aproper device management solution in place. Weare not talking here about a system handling say2,000 devices, which is easy to do. We are talkingabout a system hosting 50 or 100 million sensors.That sort of scale can be a challenge, but not for us.

RD-W: Can you give an overview of the productsand solutions you offer? SW: The Internet of Things forms a veryimportant part of our portfolio with Coiote IoT

As the numbers of sensors grow from a low base in early trial deployments, devicemanagement and data orchestration are critical capabilities for IoT success.

Robin Duke-Woolley, the chief executive of Beecham Research, interviewed Slawomir Wolf,the CEO of AVSystem, to understand the company’s offerings and to gauge his perception of

market development

There’s nothing lightweight about howLwM2M empowers IoT devices

INTERVIEW▲

56 IoT Now - Q3 2018

SPONSORED INTERVIEW

57IoT Now - Q3 2018

being a complete product suite that delivers bothdevice management and integration capabilitieswith two separate platforms – Coiote IoT DeviceManagement and Coiote IoT Data Orchestration.Both can be deployed independently or worktogether delivering fully operable IoT platformwith inbuilt M2M Connectivity Management forthose customers who might need to touchconnectivity service on the telecoms level. As faras the device management platform isconcerned, we offer full flexibility and featuresbeing a result of our experience of working tenyears in this industry. AVSystem was a devicemanagement oriented company many yearsbefore anybody even thought devicemanagement might be so important. Franklyspeaking, even myself 12 years ago when Ifounded AVSystem, never thought one day it willbecome one of the pillars of a completely newmarket growing in front of us.

Coiote IoT Data Orchestration on the other handis a killer solution letting you do the mostcomplex integration with your other systemsdirectly from the graphical user interface (GUI) ofthe product without the need for additionaldevelopment or customisation. You can easilydesign the logic, data storage representation, theway in which data should be presented and youare ready to go. With full data security, dedicatedportals for your customers with customiseddashboards and alerts, it provides all the toolsneeded to quickly prototype and deliver yourproject. These platforms are well complementedby our product on the embedded side – AnjayLwM2M SDK, which is an open-sourced library forimplementing LightweightM2M on any kind ofdevice.

We are very strong in the telecoms sector,providing various carrier-grade solutionsspecifically dedicated to this sector. UMP is ourcomprehensive device management platformthat enables management and monitoring ofdevices with telco-specific protocols – TR-069,SNMP and Telnet. The platform is used by majortier 1 telecoms operators worldwide. UMP Cloudis a separate product specifically tailored to theneeds of small and mid-sized ISPs wanting toscale easily and host their device managementservice in the cloud.

AVSystem also has a very comprehensive offeringas far as classic networking solutions areconcerned. We offer a carrier-grade DHCP serveras well as case-specific solutions such asIPv4/IPv6 translation.

An interesting area of our portfolio used byenterprises from various verticals is our Wi-FiValue Added Services. Linkyfi is a Wi-Fimarketing platform and Wi-Fi accessmanagement solution in one, chosen by suchcompanies as Telefónica to be its Wi-Fi value-added services (VAS) solution of choice forenterprise customers. What makes our Wi-Fi VASoffering really unique is the Linkyfi LocationEngine – an advanced solution for location-basedmarketing.

RD-W: What types of IoT applications andmarket verticals do you address?

SW: Telecoms because historically we are strongthere. We work with enterprises interested insecure and reliable device management andtelemetry solutions in transportation, medical,retail and the energy sector. We are not limited tothese, but they are key markets with very largepotential.

RD-W: What level of maturity have yourcustomers reached now in IoT, compared withone year ago?

SW: They know what they are doing and havestarted experimenting. They have gained realexperience, but the market is still in a trial stagewhere solutions are being tested and verifiedbefore full-speed launches. Also, it is true to saythat in different markets, let alone differentverticals, we have a different pace of adoption. Itis not just related to advancement in anyparticular country. IoT is all about real devices,things that are manufactured, so it is mostlyrelated to design and production centres aroundthe world, and costs associated with theworkforce. The higher your payroll is, the moremotivated you are to invest in an IoT solution.

RD-W: What is the role of partnerships in IoT ingeneral and in AVSystem’s business in particular?Can you refer to a few examples and tell us howthese have helped AVSystem evolve and in what way?

SW: The market is too broad to be covered byone player. It doesn’t matter if you are Google orAmazon, or even AT&T. You need to have partnersto propose real value to your customer. In ourcase, we have partnerships with hardwarevendors, like for example ST Microelectronics towhom we are delivering the full end-to-endLwM2M stack for secure device management,such as FOTA functionality. We also partner withThingworx whom we are assisting by deliveringall aspects of device management. These are justexamples, but the principle of what we do withpartners is that working as part of an ecosystem,you can achieve much more.

RD-W: What are the next steps for AVSystemregarding the development of the technologyoffering and the business?

SW: There are several concurrent directions weare developing right now and these includeforming partnerships with hardwaremanufacturers and the popularisation of theLwM2M technology. This is well recognised in thetelecoms market but there is a lot to do still onthe enterprise side. At the same time, we arebuilding a partner network of system integrationcompanies which locally may help theircustomers to build end-to-end IoT solutions. Aswe are a technology and engineering orientedcompany, we build and want to build technology.Software components and products which can beused later not only directly by enterprisecustomers, but also by software companies as anincorporated part of their products.

Slawomir Wolf,AVSystem

www.avsystem.com

59IoT Now - Q3 2018

WolkAbout is an IoT companyheadquartered in Prague, Czechia. It has aregional office in The Netherlands, adevelopment centre in Serbia, and salesrepresentatives in the US, Canada, Mexico,the UAE and China.

Founded in 2013 by software engineers withmore than 15 years of experience inindustrial automation, WolkAbout providesits clients with proven technology to rapidlydevelop powerful IoT applications, digitallytransform their business and have completecontrol over their ecosystem.

IoT platform offeringAgnostic with regards to hardware,connectivity and use case, WolkAbout IoTPlatform includes all of the functionalitiesneeded to navigate data-to-applicationintegration quickly, thus reducing the time ittakes for an application to get to market. Itallows customers to easily connect, monitorand control disparate devices over differentprotocols and network topologies, transformreal-time readings into meaningful data andcombine different devices and services into acomplete IoT solution.

Essential platform features include dataexchange between devices and theplatform: Data collection, devicemanagement, configuration management,messaging, and over the air (OTA) softwareupdates. Additional features include datavisualisation, real-time analytics, rule engineand data semantics. The platform can storean extensive amount of device data, sendalerts when anomalies are detected, andenables automation of the systemprocesses on top of the data.

The platform also allows customers tointegrate any third-party applications. Allconnectivity and web aplication programmeinterfaces (APIs) are documented, and opensource libraries and software developer kits(SDKs) are available.

The WolkAbout IoT Platform is built forperformance, reliability and security and isproven in solving business challengesacross verticals. It handles any scale of IoTimplementation, from IoT Prototyping toIndustrial Automation, making it the rightplatform with which to start a digitaltransformation.

Key differentiators1 WolkAbout IoT Platform is delivered through a lifetime license as a product, not a service, assuring the highest level of independence to customers, as well as complete data ownership and control over scalability and security. 2 The platform can be deployed on- premise, in a public or private cloud, or as a multi-layered hybrid.3 The platform comes with a suite of highly intuitive web and mobile (iOS and Android) applications which enable engineers to manage all of the Platform functionalities through simple clicks and drags and drops.4 The platform is fully transparent to customers’ engineering teams with publicly documented APIs, client libraries and SDKs and no vendor lock-in.5 A continuously growing partnership network, consisting of hardware manufacturers, connectivity providers, telco operators, system integrators and different solution providers, allows for the rapid deployment of large-scale end-to- end IoT applications.

About WolkAbout

WolkAbout Heat Map of platform services

WolkAbout IoT Platform


QoS, eSIM)











www.wolkabout.com

HEAT MAP

SPONSOREDHEATMAP

60 IoT Now - Q3 2018

CASE STUDY

Founded by a team with more than 20 years of globalexperience in carwash manufacturing and softwaredevelopment, Ready2Wash started by changingstrategy and technology so it could be ahead of thedisruptions the carwash industry faces. The companyidentified the opportunity to create a carwash IoTsolution to reduce operational and maintenance costs,increase automation and flexibility, and maintainsecurity and privacy levels. This solution could also aidthe company in understanding carwash customersand their typical behaviour in order to improve theservice offered.

Business requirements and challengesThe Ready2Wash IoT solution was driven by thefollowing business requirements:• Enabling near real-time monitoring and management of the entire carwash system, including sending alerts if any part goes beyond operating threshold or if anomalies or malfunctions are detected.• The ability to analyse the performance of the carwash system over time, with both financial and operational insights, and utilising this data as real field performance feedback for improvement.• Getting insights into a carwash consumer behaviour depending on different variables such as localisation, part of the day, day of the week, weather conditions, and creating loyalty programmes and marketing campaigns.• Increasing carwash customer satisfaction by enabling mobile payment of the carwash services.• Replacing physical money with digital tokens, thus reducing operational costs and logistics and improving customer experience.

Ready2Wash faced some challenges from the outset.The company needed a partner that could connect adiverse set of carwash machines, systems and sensors,many communicating on different protocols, onto asingle IoT platform and make them visible andcontrollable. In addition, the amount of data and data

types was so vast, that the solution handling it neededto be scalable and flexible. The IoT platform that dealswith this amount of data, among which areinformation about financial transactions, needed to bereadily available and highly reliable with no piece ofdata being lost. Finally, Ready2Wash faced thechallenge of integrating both new and legacyequipment, without additional investment in thehardware replacement.

As the majority of carwash machines were neverconnected, data was manually compiled resulting indelays and inaccuracies in decision-making. The lackof real-time data meant self-service carwash operatorscouldn't react to malfunctions in real time, while lackof the historical trends meant the future trends couldnot be predicted.

The solutionWolkAbout developed an end-to-end solution forReady2Wash on top of WolkAbout IoTPlatform. The platform itself was provided using aSoftware as a Product (SaaP) model,assuring the highest level of independence for theReady2Wash team, as well as the ability to resell thiscloud-based solution to different carwash owners.

Given that WolkAbout IoT Platform is vendor agnostic,it can connect a range of diverse machines seamlesslyand provide an end-to-end solution, right from themachine connectivity to data acquisition andprocessing, with custom-built business applications ontop of the platform.

As many of the carwash machines were not designedto share data, the solution demanded retrofitting ofhardware to enable their connectivity. WolkAboutbuilt a simple gateway mechanism called Modbusbridge device, which acted as a connectivity modulethat safely and reliably transmitted the programmablelogic controllers’ (PLCs) data over Wi-Fi to theWolkAbout IoT Platform.

WolkAbout IoT Platformintroduces a new type ofindustrial automation for

carwashes

▼

As technology expands, we’ve begun to enter an entirely new realm where stayingconnected 24/7 is the norm. This digital revolution also affects the way companies are doingbusiness. In the near future, they will have to start providing solutions that enable totalconnectivity, thus improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Ready2Wash,a specialist in providing integrated solutions for self-service carwash stations, recognisedthis and engaged with Wolkabout to support its IoT services

SPONSORED CASE STUDY

61IoT Now - Q3 2018

PLCs were fitted with a bridge device, so there was noneed for hardware changes to the existing carwashsystem. All data – operational, financial, customers andthird-party data –were collected and available for useat one place. The WolkAbout IoT Platform is designedto have reliable two-way communication between theplatform and carwash facilities in order to enable real-time monitoring of various operational parameters,workflow automation, real-time detection of faultsituations, remote configuration of the system, as wellas customised management, operational and technicaldashboards.

A web portal created for self-service carwash ownershelps them manage multiple facilities from anylocation, monitor all their work processes andmalfunctions. The key feature is control, as WolkAboutIoT Platform allows remote actuation of switches,relays and water pumps. At the same time,Ready2Wash solution allows customers to usecarwash services through the customer web portaland mobile apps more easily and securely than everbefore. Customers can enjoy the convenience ofmobile payment by buying virtual tokens via credit ordebit cards. When geolocation services detect acustomer at the specific carwash facility, they can usecarwash services by spending virtual tokens instead ofphysical coins. Lastly, customers can join marketingand loyalty campaigns and earn rewards, such as freewashing.

Through the monetisation module of WolkAbout IoTPlatform, carwash owners are also able to analyse thefinancial performance of the carwash system in realtime, allowing them to have insights into the accuratefinancial standing the moment any payment occurs.Furthermore, self-service carwash owners can alsotrack financial data over time, and be able to utilisethis data as a real field performance feedback throughtime. The Ready2Wash web portal provides a deepview into a carwash customer behavior depending ondifferent variables, helping carwash ownersunderstand customers typical behaviour and createtailor-made marketing campaigns and loyaltyprogrammes.

Business outcomesWith WolkAbout IoT Platform, Ready2Wash was ableto build the IoT solution and transform the existingself-service carwash business.

The B2B solution (for carwash owners) includes:• Centralised data: All operational, financial, customer and third-party data is now collected and available for analysis at a central location.• Real-time system visibility and control: The solution enables near real-time automation, monitoring and control of carwash facilities remotely over a web portal.• Condition monitoring: Real-time alerts and notifications, as well as historical analysis of machine data help improve real-time condition monitoring of the carwash system.• Real-time financial monitoring: Besides online service utilisation, the financial reporting capabilities help carwash owners slice and dice sales data to get actionable insights.• Understanding customers needs: By recognising the customers’ behaviour and habits, carwash owners can reward their loyalty. This feature helps them define multiple loyalty programmes for various groups of customers.• Extensible for additional equipment: As WolkAbout IoT Platform is hardware and connectivity agnostic, it can integrate any additional equipment and can be used for customer specific requirements.• Fast time-to-market: Adoption of the Ready2Wash solution allows carwash owners to digitally transform the way they do their business in weeks.

The B2C solution includes a customer web portal, as well as Android and iOS applications. They enable carwash customers to:• Buy Ready2Wash tokens via secured payment process through the mobile applications• Use services of any carwash facility by spending tokens instead of coins, with a single tap in the application• Join loyalty campaigns and earn rewards and bonuses• Navigate to carwash facilities easily

Wolkabout IoTPlatform is helpingReady2Wash’sdigitaltransformation

www.wolkabout.com

63IoT Now - Q3 2018

IoT PLATFORMS

Choosing an IoTplatform is no easytask, but getting itright will accelerate

growthREPORT

Prepared byIoT Analytics

64 IoT Now - Q3 2018

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an increasingly important technology element forcompanies of nearly all sectors and around the world. For many firms it hasbecome one of the pillars of their digitalisation strategy, promising theenablement of new business cases such as predictive maintenance, fleetmanagement, infrastructure monitoring or analytics-based process optimisation.As part of these connected solutions few companies today build the wholesolution themselves from scratch. Rather, IoT – software – platforms haveemerged as a crucial enabling element. For companies deploying connectedsolutions or building connected operations, choosing a platform that is easy-to-use, comes with the right features and a strong partner ecosystem has becomea topic of major strategic importance. Following months of research, therecently published IoT Analytics’ IoT platforms market report and vendorcomparison examines the role of IoT platforms in the Internet of Things and thisarticle, written by Padraig Scully the chief research officer at IoT Analytics,reveals some insights from that research

64 IoT Now - Q3 2018

ANALYST REPORT

First, it’s important to define terminology and set out adefinition of an IoT platform. IoT platforms are a pieceof modular software technology that enable solutionsfor IoT device connectivity, device management, datamanagement in the cloud, application development andenablement, and advanced analytics.

There are five types of IoT platform: 1. Connectivity platforms: are a form of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that offer coverage capabilities andsolutions for connecting the IoT device, managing andorchestrating connectivity, and provisioningcommunication services for connected IoT devices.2. Device management platforms: are a form of PaaSor device cloud that handle provisioning tasks to ensureconnected devices are deployed, configured and keptup-to-date with regular firmware/software updates.3. Cloud platforms (infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS)backends): are a form of IaaS that offer a scalableenterprise-grade backend for data management of IoTapplications and services.4. Application enablement platforms (AEPs): are aform of PaaS that also offer Software-as-a-service(SaaS) solutions enabling developers rapidly create, testand deploy an IoT application or service.5. Advanced analytics platforms: are a form of PaaSthat also offer SaaS solutions for sophisticated analyticstools including machine learning techniques andstreaming analytics capabilities to extract actionableinsights from IoT data.

The fundamental technological components of each IoTplatform type are shown in Figure 1:

It is worth noting, that there is one overarching elementcommonly found in all IoT platforms, regardless of thetype: Data acquisition and IoT Device softwaredevelopment kits (SDKs). All platforms require some form of data acquisitionlayer that typically comes in the form of a local softwareagent on the device so that it can communicate withthe platform and other systems. IoT device SDKs,offered by platform providers, enable the building ofsuch agents for data acquisition in the platform.The market report includes more detailed info on each

element of the five types of IoT platform.

Market overview The report forecasts a compound annual growth rate(CAGR) for IoT platforms of 39% over the time frame of2018-2023, with annual spending surpassing US$22bnby 2023. These numbers are based on the IoTplatforms-related revenue of the leading companies inthe field, across 11 industry segments – agriculture,connected buildings, connected car, energy, health,manufacturing, public services, retail, smart supplychain, transportation and other.

2017 is the base year for estimates of the IoT platformmarket, with the overall market value reaching overUS$3.1bn. The IoT platform market is expected to bejust under US$4.5bn by the end of 2018 and is forecastto grow to almost US$22.3bn by 2023. However, themarket remains fragmented with many playerscompeting for market share. Signs of consolidation areonly slowly appearing with a number of acquisitions andmergers in the past year – 25 IoT platforms wereacquired in 2017 compared to just three in 2013. Thefact that this market was more or less non-existent fiveyears ago means most platforms are only a few yearsold and the nascent market is currently full of earlyphase IoT projects. IoT Analytics’ recent research showsproof of concepts, pilot projects and small-mediumscale deployments account for 80% of identifiedenterprise IoT projects. Nevertheless, some platformsare now supporting larger roll-outs such as Microsoftconnecting thousands of Thyssenkrupp elevators.Platforms are also becoming more mature, withdifferentiation no longer lying in the big modules, suchas from whether they support analytics or devicemanagement, but rather in some smaller aspects suchas support some specific protocols, having a great userinterface or an implementation team with the rightknow-how.

Segment analysis: The manufacturing segment for IoTplatforms surpassed US$1bn in 2017, making it thelargest IoT platform segment, and it is forecast toremain so in 2023. The segment has experiencedsubstantial growth in the traditionally largemanufacturing-base countries such as the US andGermany.

65IoT Now - Q3 2018

▼

IoT PLATFORMS

Figure 2

66 IoT Now - Q3 2018

Regional analysis: Asia emerged as the biggest IoTplatform market region by implementation in 2017driven by strong growth in China. The top three regionsare completed by Europe and North America with theother regions MEA, Oceania, South America and therest of the world only accounting for less than 5% ofthe total market. High growth is expected to continuein Asia, mainly driven by China, with its large industrialmanufacturing footprint offering a huge market withgrowth potential for IoT platform vendors

Deep-dive 1: How customerschoose an IoT platformAmong other things, the report highlights severalexamples of how customers select their IoT platforms.For example, an automotive original equipmentmanufacturer (OEM) in Germany pre-selected ten IoTplatform vendors and invited them to perform two-dayproof-of-concepts (PoCs) in a real production setting.Vendors were assessed using a number of testingcriteria in connecting equipment on the factory floorsuch as infrastructure, network, IoT, analytics, managedservices, security, usability and partner ecosystem –which each may have up to ten weighted sub-criteria.Following this, two of the best vendors were selectedfor three-month PoCs and were further ranked on theircapabilities. Finally, recommendations by the IoT teaminvolved in the PoCs were made to the steeringcommittee and the head of plant automation made thefinal decision.

The CEO is often involved in the final decision. Inmany cases, the final decision is taken by the CEOand/or a management team or board including theCEO following the recommendation made by a team oftechnical experts, often based on the PoC testingresults. Results from a recent survey are presented inthe table below:

Final decision maker Mentioned CEO (only) 44%

Board of managers/directors 26%

(including CEO)

Other director or manager below the 17%

CEO (CIO, VP IoT, Project Manager,

Head of department, etc.)

Using more than one platform is common – switchingproviders for the same component is rare. Thenascent nature of the IoT platform market has resultedin many customers using more than one platform in theproof-of-concepts and pilot projects. Using several

different platforms in the exploratory phases can helpcustomers compare and understand which platformworks best for their needs. However, switchingproviders for the same component – for example, theIoT cloud storage – of a platform is rare and to-datehas only been triggered by serious technical reasonssuch as performance issues and/or very uniqueadvantages offered by a component from a differentplatform.

Deep-dive 2: Partner ecosystemBuilding a strong partner ecosystem by embracingcollaboration with two-to-three companies from eachlayer across the technology stack can help a platformstand out from the competition.

Collaboration with partners for hardware (such aschip/device manufacturers or edge intelligenceproviders), connectivity, cloud datastorage/middleware, analytics, security and systemintegration can help IoT platform vendors from both atechnological and business perspective:

• Technological: The technological benefit ofcollaboration is that the IoT platform vendor can focuson its core technological strengths while relying onexpertise from others across its non-core activities toachieve new levels of innovation and increase the valuegenerated from using the platform. Partnerships withhardware vendors are most advantageous, as theyenable interoperability between platforms and devices.For example, Telit has launched its own partnerprogramme ‘Ready for deviceWISE’, providing thepossibility of partners to certify their devicesaccordingly.

• Business: A strong partner ecosystem also opensup new business opportunities to get involved on somepartners projects and even start combined-selling ofcollaborative solutions. For platform sales, the besttypes of partners are system integrators or cloudbackend/IaaS vendors as these partnerships can bringthe platform vendor closer to the potential users. Forlarger vendors, whose platform has already beenwidely adopted, system integrators will, in most cases,already have expert teams trained on their platforms. Incontrast, smaller vendors can find it harder to approacha system integrator for partnering up unless they bringa customer along with them to run a PoC or pilotproject. For them it is easier to find platform sales leadsthrough partnering with a Cloud Vendor, like Microsoftor Amazon Web Services (AWS). For example,deviceWISE, which hosts its platform on MicrosoftAzure, also gains sales leads via Microsoft.

ANALYST REPORT

▼

67IoT Now - Q3 2018

The IoT platform vendor comparisonabove shows Software AG, Microsoft, andAWS have the most IoT-relatedpartnerships in place. The IoT platformvendors compared in the report onaverage have 21 companies, therebySoftware Ag (46 partners), Microsoft (43)and AWS (43) have more than twice thenumber of partners which makes themstand out from the rest of the IoT platformvendors.

The IoT platform Cumulocity, which wasacquired by Software AG in March 2017now benefits from the broad partnershipecosystem of Software AG. Since itsacquisition Software AG’s Cumulocity hasnow become one of the top 15 IoTplatforms in the market, with the strongpartnership ecosystem of Software AGopening many new doors for them in themarket. Microsoft and Amazon have alsomade a big push for their respectivecollaboration efforts in the last two yearsand are now reaping the benefits with90% growth year-on-year to become thetop two leading IoT platform vendors bymarket share.

ConclusionThe IoT platforms market has experiencedenormous growth in the last three years.These versatile technology softwareplatforms are gaining in importance acrossmany industries especially inindustrial/manufacturing settings. IoTplatforms are becoming crucial from anend-user point of view in the digitaltransformation of their businesses fromonce standalone products into smartconnected solutions. It is becomingevident that choosing a platform provideris not an easy task. Customers havedifferent approaches, however early stagepilots and PoCs are key to success as wellas choosing a vendor with a strongpartner ecosystem.

IoT Analytics has a dedicated researchstream on IoT Platforms. The latest reportsare the IoT Platforms Market Report 2018-2023 and the IoT Platforms VendorComparison 2018 – both recentlypublished in June 2018.

▼

About IoT AnalyticsIoT Analytics is a provider of market insights for the Internet of Things (IoT), M2M, andIndustry 4.0. More than 40,000 IoT decision makers rely on our data-driven marketresearch every month. Our products and services portfolio includes free insights on IoTmarkets and companies, focused market reports on specific IoT segments and Go-to-Market services for emerging IoT companies.

IoT Analytics is a leading IoT market research and industry analyst firm, focused on theInternet of Things (IoT), M2M, and Industry 4.0. Our aim is to bring you the best andlatest market insights around the IoT ecosystem so that you can better understand IoTmarkets. While we monitor the general technology business environment and generaltrends around digital transformation, most of our work is focused on the analysis of IoTmarkets and IoT companies.

Figure 3

www.iot-analytics.com

IoT PLATFORMS

enterprise buyers’ guide 2018 – which iot platform?verticals: we provide them with the necessary...

Documents