The Secret Sauce
So how do we help our clients choose ? The secret sauce for IoT platform selection has its key ingredients and considerations .
First and foremost , there is no off-the-shelf , onesize-fits-all IoT platform . All such platforms are works-in-progress , as are the cloud platforms on which they run . It is safe to say that they will all continue to add new features and functions , hopefully MVP-style , and on a predictable timeline on which we can help our clients plan their own development activities .
Many of our clients have asked us to design a “ foundation IoT architecture and platform ” that will work across all the complex and evolving needs of the business , to support both current known and future unknown needs . This is an admirable goal and , in fact , there are indeed many common components across IoT platforms that address fundamental capabilities , such as device management , provisioning , security , data ingestion , analytics and event processing , and communications .
However , even after choosing the “ right ” platform , unique client-specific environments and challenges can make implementing many of these features far more complex than clients initially realize . Sometimes the urgent desire for speed in building a solution can come at the expense of solving for such common needs .
The converse can also be the case , where clients deliberately seek to address all current and future needs of the business ( long-term security , trust , privacy , large-scale ingestion and data storage , largescale device management , etc .), but at the expense of time-to-market . Driving this approach there is usually an admirable goal of “ getting it right the first time ”, but designing an architecture for its own sake is seldom tied to real customer value . This can lead to a variety of other adoption issues , not to mention friction between IT , OT and the various lines of business demanding applications . The best IoT platforms seek to address many of these challenges , while creating an environment on which new business applications can be quickly built and deployed .
We help our clients through these critical considerations to come up with the right secret sauce for IoT platform selection . Here ’ s a quick list of the things we address when evaluating and choosing an IoT platform that will meet their current and future infrastructure , development and business needs :
• Market focus : Is the IoT platform vendor focused on connected consumer , commercial or industrial products ? Do they have a laser or shotgun perspective ?
• Hardware compatibility : Will the platform integrate with and speak the languages of the client ’ s existing OT assets , platforms , devices , networks and systems ?
• Software and technical skills : Does the client ’ s team have experience with the programming languages required to build apps on this plat-
52 | THE DOPPLER | WINTER 2018