If you're looking for an IoT platform that can connect to network devices and provide a hosted infrastructure for your IoT solutions, and will cost-effectively and securely manage and route data - this discussion is for you, as we’re about to give you an inside look at the top five platform requirements you'll want to consider. Before getting to those requirements however, let’s talk about what functionality the platform should provide.
Just as cloud computing has established dominance for data distribution in areas such as e-commerce and business management, your Internet of Things platform should seamlessly connect remote sensors with devices and the platform itself, and then also to end-user applications.
The platform your IoT solutions run on should also provide a central aggregation service, to which all remote gateways and devices are attached. It should do so securely with automated detection and self-healing devices, and utilize a secure integration protocol to send and retrieve data in a variety of ways.
So, what should you be looking for in an IoT platform? What are the top five must-have requirements?
Number One: Reliability
Next, you'll want to make sure the IoT platform behind your IoT solutions is reliable. The device connection mechanism must be rock-solid, since there usually aren't any humans at the other end to retry or resend data if something goes wrong. The system must operate as if the device is on another planet and no one can get to it.
Number Two: Security
Your IoT platform is the foundation of your IoT solutions, so first and foremost, security is key. In addition to knowing the platform is secure at a technical level, you also want to know that the team operating the platform follows industry-standard security controls - security measures that are built upon widely proven industry standards. The controls can then be enforced with active monitoring tools, and verified with policy compliance and certification audits.
Number Three: Flexibility
What will you be using the data collected by your IoT solutions for? Very often you'll want to interface with third-party tools and applications that offer the type of data analytics you need to discover the findings and information that are relevant to you, This means that the platform needs to talk to those tools seamlessly and reliably on the application side.
An industry standard application interface for web developers needs to be put in place. This allows you to communicate all types of information securely while sending and retrieving data to external applications, which brings up the subject of user interface...
Number Four: Scalability
The platform itself needs to be robust (as we’ve just mentioned), but it also needs to offer you the opportunity to add more and more devices. Otherwise, how do any IoT solutions you implement grow, or improve? In other words, your IoT platform needs to be scalable… It needs to have a device layer that can handle being connected to large numbers of devices, and can easily interact with them. Expanding your solution or the number of registered devices should not require a lot of planning or prep time. It should be simple and efficient. In fact, you shouldn't even have to think about it.
Number Five: Simplicity
Simple and intuitive is always best even at massive scale - and nowhere is this more true than the world of IoT solutions. Administrators should be able to change device configuration settings, transfer files, update firmware and automate processes, and it should be possible for all of this to happen on a schedule, or as network issues arise. In other words, you want to be able to tell the platform what to do and when to do it - that way, everything is taken care of for you.
So, in summary one last time, the top 5 IoT platform requirements you should consider are: Reliability, Security Flexibility Scalability, and, last but not least, Simplicity. Take all of these points into account and address them, and Pod Group know that you’re well on your way to creating a top-quality IoT solution!