For an increasing number of businesses, IoT has moved from being a nice-to-have to a strategic necessity. This means a new emphasis on introducing IoT quickly and extending it within the business, writes Robin Duke-Woolley, the chief executive of Beecham Research.
This aim becomes challenging quite quickly. For example, when success means processing large amounts of data in real-time to support current business operations. It can be more challenging still to integrate these new real-time data flows with traditional batch update data typical of IT systems already in use. Those challenges increase further when these data flows need to interoperate smoothly and securely across several different business operations, all in real-time.
To cater for these and other challenges and create an IoT solution that will stand the test of time, IoT platforms are increasingly being viewed as the starting point to build on. Put simply, the aim of an IoT platform is to reduce the time and cost of getting new IoT solutions built and implemented by using components already available and being used in other IoT solutions. It takes advantage of the fact that the majority of what is needed for most IoT solutions is the same and does not need to be reinvented for every application: it can be predesigned and made available through an IoT platform. The platform then also provides the means for implementing those elements that are specific to the particular application, as well as customising and configuring the solution for the specific need.
So how do business users, often referred as adopters, go about choosing the right IoT platform for them?
Read more: http://www.iotplatformsguide.com