IoT Solutions Evolve
Everyone from consumer goods makers to auto manufacturers to delivery companies is anxious to leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) for greater value and productivity, but to date, the tools available for building IoT solutions haven’t been particularly efficient. Companies have been forced to “roll their own” IoT solutions, and many of these efforts have been late to market, way over budget, difficult to upgrade or clunky at solving the problems they were designed to tackle.
Now, things are changing. Major companies from GE to Microsoft have entered the IoT solutions market, and would-be IoT users are finding that they can buy solutions that streamline development and produce better finished applications. But there’s still a divide in the IoT market, and this is making it harder than necessary to build finished IoT solutions.
There are two aspects to an IoT solution: the application (software making up the interface, underlying data processing, and other functions) and connectivity to the IoT. Most IoT solution providers are focused on the application side, but the connectivity side is equally important. After all, an application without an IoT connection is like a car without wheels.
The connectivity challenge is that many companies want to roll out IoT applications in several markets or even globally, and the wireless technologies available to carry the traffic vary from one region to another (including 2G, 3G, LTE, LTE-M, and NB-IoT). As a result, IoT users often have to manage several connectivity networks via separate consoles and even in separate regions. This has created lock-in to specific network technologies and made it more difficult to upgrade IoT applications globally.
Aeris Communications is one company that has understood and addressed this challenge from the beginning. For the past 14 years, Aeris has built both connectivity and application solutions to offer buyers a complete IoT package. Aeris’ Connectivity Platform handles connections to any kind of network under a single interface, and the company’s Mobility Platform has all of the components to streamline application-building. And with more than 10 million IoT connections handling some 1 billion IoT messages per day under management by its solutions, Aeris has the experience to understand the full range of IoT challenges and the technical expertise to solve them.
So, the IoT market has evolved past the point where companies don’t have to develop their own solutions in-house. Tools exist today to obtain and deliver full-featured IoT solutions, but while you’re building the latest and greatest IoT application, don’t forget the connectivity.
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