by Exosite, on October 25, 2016
This week in the Build or Buy blog, we’ll discuss working with IoT platform providers. This may come off as shameless self-promotion, but we want to provide you with the most holistic view possible to assist you on the path to lucrative IoT implementation. As an IoT platform provider, we know the pros and cons within our own market and will illustrate them to help you on your way to creating a successful IoT ecosystem.
IoT platform providers carry reusable puzzle pieces that can be swiftly assembled to create an IoT solution in a reliable and secure way. IoT platform providers offer services and user interfaces that are tailor-made for the types of users and companies that need to create IoT solutions. Common features of an IoT platform include services like device provisioning and connectivity, device management, data ingest, stream processing and analytics, data storage, cloud-to-cloud integration, APIs, user management, and application hosting. Great IoT platform providers also offer a unified user experience for manufacturers to be able to configure and tune these pieces rapidly to create highly differentiated IoT solutions.
One of the major benefits of using an IoT platform provider is that you don’t need to re-create services and features that already exist, leaving you valuable time and energy to differentiate in the areas that matter to your business, while also getting to market faster. Another critical advantage is that standard DevOps, monitoring, maintenance, intrusion detection, vulnerability management, and support are often included in the platform cost, meaning you don’t have to maintain a large internal team to manage the servers and infrastructure you might be tempted to build when using an infrastructure provider.
The challenges of an IoT platform provider will come in managing your relationship and technical compatibility with the platform provider. It’s important to find a partner that your team trusts, both personally and technically. As in any relationship, when the communication breaks down, so does the relationship. If the technology your partner uses is one that doesn’t fit with your ecosystem, or that your internal team doesn’t know or have the ability to learn, you may face unexpected roadblocks and slower time-to-market.
To check out the full white paper, click below. You can also gain hands-on experience with an IoT platform for free by signing up for Murano!
