The IoT Marketplace - Amazon S3 · application depending on the machine integration needs and...

BUSINESSAPPLICATIONS

IoT DATASERVICES

BIG DATAANALYTICS

DEVICECLOUDS

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The IoT Marketplace It Takes a Community to Build IoT Solutions

It is widely recognized that Internet of Things solutions are a diverse assembly of hardware

and software technologies including devices, operating systems, communications and

messaging technologies, cloud services, and enterprise systems. But none of the technologies

are of value until an application exists for aggregating, distributing and displaying the inputs and

outputs of the machine data communications. Fundamentally, IoT applications are the nerve

center of any IoT solution.

Enterprises have several options for acquiring IoT applications. They can create them

from scratch using both internal and external resources. Another option is purchase them as

an off-the-shelf application. The third approach leverages common toolsets up to complete

platforms which aggregate the best practices and common application development tools used

by most enterprises.

IoT applications are the nerve center of any IoT solution

www.abiresearch.comTHE IOT MARKETPLACE IT TAKES A COMMUNITY TO BUILD IOT SOLUTIONS

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But any approach still requires answering other questions. What devices or gateways should I

leverage for machine connectivity? What partners should I consider for application development,

connectivity services, and solution support and management? What are my options for application

customization and services integration? As the application evolves, can I enhance and scale it

efficiently and cost effectively?

In essence it takes a community to not only build an IoT application but also support and maintain

an end-to-end IoT solution. And a new and innovative approach toward serving this need is now

available called IoT Marketplaces. IoT Marketplaces offer an effective means to find not only the

technologies and service components for building IoT applications, but also the suppliers for support

and lifecycle management of IoT solutions. More broadly, IoT Marketplaces are places where buyers

and sellers of IoT technologies and solutions aggregate and collaborate to ultimately accelerate the

pace of IoT application development and innovation.

This white paper will begin with the key issues affecting enterprises with IoT solution development

activities. It will then transition into a discussion of the key components and benefits of IoT Market-

places for serving enterprise developers over the lifecycle of an IoT solution. The white paper will

conclude with an IoT Marketplace case example demonstrating its value to actual customers.

THE CHALLENGES OF IOT APPLICATION DEVELOPMENTWhen designing and building an IoT solution, enterprise developers are confronted with a new

set of challenges because it requires connecting to “things”, as well as making the thing data easily

consumable for applications.

IoT Marketplaces accelerate the pace of IoT application development and innovation

INDUSTRIALSYSTEMS

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Connecting to things requires choosing the right technologies that address application

requirements. First a thing or machine may need to be “sensorized” through hardware and software

engineering expertise. If the machine or product does not have a communications port, it will require

an integrated module or use of a gateway. Connectivity choices for sending and receiving IoT

data are dependent on location, power accessibility, and application requirements for data

communications frequency and bandwidth. Connectivity options include fixed, satellite and cellular

technologies and possibly short range wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Zigbee.

If the machine, sensor or device cannot communicate using Internet protocols, other messaging

protocols such as MQTT and AMQP may be needed which have their own specifications for

application interaction.

These choices are only half of the “plumbing” requirements of an IoT application. IoT data must

be collected in cloud infrastructure that addresses at a minimum the application’s throughput,

storage and regulatory needs. If enterprises choose their own cloud infrastructure it will

require building services for normalizing machine data sometimes only accomplished using

specialized protocol conversion technologies. The application may also need a business rules

engine to generate alerts and route data appropriately. Outsourcing these types of IoT data services

is also available from a long list of device cloud or IoT platform vendors.

All of these factors require attention even before a single line of code is written! In addition, solution

component selection needs to be done thoughtfully so they work together seamlessly and securely.

Compounding the challenge is IoT application development should prepare for inevitable changes

in these “front-end” elements from new communication technologies or device replacements, as

well as through integration with new services and systems such as analytics, and ERP and CRM

applications.

Finally, the many technology choices required to build an IoT solution drives yet another issue for

enterprise developers – assessing multiple suppliers. In fact, one of the biggest challenges today

faced by enterprises in building an IoT application is supplier diversity and offer complexity. So the

natural question when considering all of these issues becomes: Is there a fast, convenient way to

find the partners, components and application toolsets to efficiently build, update and manage an

IoT solution?

IOT MARKETPLACES FOR ENTERPRISE DEVELOPERSIoT marketplaces are like the very well known “app stores” because they facilitate interactions

between buyers of technologies and the suppliers of technologies. However, to most effectively serve

enterprise developers, as well as overcome the challenges cited above, IoT Marketplaces need two

important capabilities. First is a complete set of devices, development tools and services – effectively

Connecting to things requires choosing the right technolo-gies that address application requirements

The many IoT technology choices drives yet another issue for enterprise developers – assessing multiple suppliers


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a one-stop-shop. In the broadest sense, IoT Marketplaces need to have all the required components

to build an IoT solution including communications devices, application development toolsets, applica-

tion management services and basic integration connectors to collect and monitor connected assets

and create analytics to act upon machine data.

Second, IoT Marketplaces should be built around a single collection point for IoT data. These collection

points can be connector services, or device clouds, or as extensive as application enablement

platforms. When assembled around a single platform, IoT Marketplaces remove from developer

responsibilities many of the messy tasks of integration on the front end with devices, but also on

the back-end with enterprise systems and third-party services. In effect, this architecture provides

developers with more time to focus on the customized aspects of IoT application development.

The important components of a holistic IoT marketplace serving enterprise developers are:Certified and Pre-Integrated Device Supplier Portfolio – A large menu

of certified device suppliers provides connectivity hardware options for the

application depending on the machine integration needs and capabilities.

Device pre-integration guarantees interoperability with the marketplace

platform so device data can be readily interpreted and used by an IoT

application. This category should also include SDKs that allow building

platform software agents and connectors for specialized devices as well as

device starter kits for testing OEM device capabilities.

Device Clouds – While a single device cloud is the primary integration

point for an IoT Marketplace, it does not preclude leveraging other device

clouds or private cloud infrastructure. Multiple device clouds exist

today coming from various vendors in the IoT supply chain such as IoT

gateway vendors; or cloud services providers that typically can provide

additional data storage, integration and analytics type services. Also within

this category are protocol adapters that ease integration with other device

clouds and messaging platforms, and enable interpreting machine data

coming from non-standard device types.

Application UI Customization – The user interface of an IoT application

needs customization to address the needs of the users and functional

organizations accessing the data. Core features include device inventory

lists, basic descriptive analytics, and user access rights and privileges. All

of this can be built from scratch or ideally using composer tools that allow

IoT Marketplaces provide a complete set of devices, development tools and services – effectively a one-stop-shop

CERTIFIED AND PRE-INTEGRATED DEVICE SUPPLIER PORTFOLIO

DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS

DEVICE CLOUDS

APPLICATION UI CUSTOMIZATION

SOLUTION MANAGEMENT

DATA SERVICES INTEGRATION



DEVICE CLOUDS


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drag and drop application creation. In the former case, Marketplace partners can offer the application

development services, but a more cost effective and speedier approach depending on application

needs is use of prebuilt widgets, plug-ins and extensions to either create the entire application UI or

use in combination of third party development services. The Marketplace should also make available

SDKs and IDEs to suit developer preferences for different development environments.

Data Services Integration – Data services integration adds new

functionality and extends the application to new users and applications.

New functionality can be from enhancements in the UI such as access

to Google maps or messaging functionality using Twitter. Integration with

internal systems such as Active Directory can simplify user authorization

or machine data delivery to enterprise CRM or ERP systems. A Marketplace

should also provide access to the growing number IoT data and analytics

services. In all cases, the Marketplace provides tested, secure and proven

connectors to these data services.

Solution Management – A fundamental requirement of any IoT

application is support services capabilities for device management

and connectivity management. Device management is available through

OEM clouds or device clouds of other platform vendors. Connectivity

management applies to cellular and satellite connections and is provided by

3rd party providers or by mobile operators.

Development Partners – Even with the broad range of toolsets offered by

an IoT Marketplace, some companies may not have the resources to build

their own solution. Marketplaces that include access to trained and certified

professional and consulting services, can build apps from the ground up, or

extend, enhance and customize IoT applications.

Marketplaces built around an application enablement platform (AEP) are especially valuable.

AEPs bundle together device cloud services, device integration services, and application integration

tools into a single offering. As a result, AEPs not only simplify supplier certification activities but also

streamline application development tasks.

IoT Marketplaces built around a single platform remove many of the messy front end and back-end integration tasks

Marketplaces built around an application enablement platform (AEP) are especially valuable



DEVICE CLOUDS


SOLUTION MANAGEMENT




DEVICE CLOUDS


SOLUTION MANAGEMENT




DEVICE CLOUDS


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DRIVING DEVELOPMENT EFFICIENCIES – THE BENEFITS OF IOT MARKETPLACESAn IoT Marketplace which consists of an end-to-end set of devices, tools and services, as well as built

on a common platform offer enterprise developers the following benefits:

Improved Security – Improved security is derived from pre-integrated components whereby pos-

sible security issues are flagged and corrected before granting Marketplace certification. Improved

security is also driven by integration to a single platform simplifying component certification and in-

teroperability. Finally, security benefits are derived from application development best practices that

naturally result from marketplace collaboration between customers and suppliers.

Efficient Development for Evolving Applications Created by Distributed Teams – Like most

application projects, IoT applications will evolve over time and be developed by distributed developer

teams. It is therefore imperative that these teams leverage a common set of tools provided by a Mar-

ketplace to avoid integration and interoperability issues. The benefit is IoT applications are efficiently

built and updated over their lifecycle.

Faster Time to Market – IoT Marketplaces, particularly those built around a single AEP, offer the

fastest way to create an application in three areas. On the device side, integration to single data

collection point eliminates device connectivity and data normalization issues. For application

composition, prebuilt components and widgets reduce the number of coding tasks. For application

integration to back-end systems and services, connectors are available and pre-tested.

IoT applications are efficiently built and updated over their lifecycle using the tools and services of an IoT Marketplace

IOT MARKETPLACE

IMPROVED SECURITY

EFFICIENT APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

FASTER TIME TO MARKET

LOWER SOLUTION COSTS


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Lower Solution Costs – The efficiency and reduced time to market benefits naturally eliminate the

costlier aspects of application development both in the short term and long term. Developers can

avoid if not eliminate most of the supplier assessment activities. Using pre-integrated components,

coupling of devices and systems is nearly plug-and-play and application testing is streamlined. Longer

term, using a common set of tools and platform infrastructure, developers can quickly extend their

IoT application to new functional areas and rapidly integrate with new analytics services and enter-

prise systems.

CASE STUDYIndustrial OEMs use asset management service providers to monitor and manage remote assets. Delivered via a SaaS model, asset management services help customers improve utilization and reduce overall asset management costs.

For one of the more successful asset management service providers, growth was starting to bump up against their ability to scale. They were not able to maintain adequate service levels as connected asset counts began exceeding 100. In considering the options for upgrading their offering, they realized that supplier and technology assessments would have required considerable time and effort. And the delay in providing a more scalable solution would limit acquiring new customers and potentially risk losing existing customers.

The service provider turned to ThingWorx and its IoT Marketplace to help them rebuild their solution. Key benefits of the Marketplace were its dozens of certified device vendors which eased the process of connecting customer assets. Another was its library of pre-built functional extensions, widgets, and integrations with 3rd party products simplifying application development and dashboard customization. The last benefit was the ThingWorx Application Enablement platform, the architectural core of the Marketplace providing highly scalable messaging and data storage infrastructure to grow assets under management to millions of units.

The service provider’s new SaaS offering built using the ThingWorx IoT Marketplace has been a huge success. In fact, immediately after launch, the upgraded solution was credited with winning 15 new customers for the service provider. Looking ahead, the service provider foresees new services opportunities leveraging the Marketplace’s certified data and analytics

partners including ThingWorx Machine Learning.


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SUMMARYIoT solution development is a complex endeavor driven both by a myriad of technology choices and

a vast supplier network with multiple hardware and services offerings. In fact, in just the device and

connectivity market segments, there are literally hundreds of IoT suppliers!

However a new and innovative offering is available to help address these challenges called the IoT

Marketplace. Quite simply, it is a place where enterprises, developers and buyers of IoT services

can find sellers of IoT products and services. For enterprise developers responsible for building and

maintaining IoT applications, Marketplaces that offer all components of an IoT solution from

communications devices to application development services to application integration services

offer the most value. Marketplaces with end-to-end offerings also provide other important benefits

such as pre-integrated components that both reduce application development time and cost, and

improve overall solution security.

Marketplaces built around a single application enablement platform provide an optimal Marketplace

foundation for guaranteed interoperability, security and time-to-market benefits. AEPs not only

simplify supplier certification activities but also streamline application development tasks.

Overall, IoT Marketplaces provide not only an efficient way for the enterprise developer community

to build, maintain, and update IoT applications, but also are a solid foundation for executing business

transformation in a more connected world.

Published June 2016©2016 ABI Research

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