IoT & Embedded Technology Blog

Privacy and security are both huge concerns for consumers and businesses alike in the evolving IoT landscape. Privacy is the unauthorized use of data by an entity that has been granted access to a dataset. Thus it is generally privacy that forms the relationship between companies and customers, and any breach of this contract is a privacy concern. Security, on the other hand, is the unauthorized use and or/access of data by an entity that has not been granted access to some dataset; e.g. hacking and external security breaches. Both privacy and security goals will be hard to reconcile with the main aim of IoT development: monitoring, collecting, analyzing, and using massive amounts of data.

Whose job is it to protect sensitive data in these rapidly-growing IoT industries? Responsibilities for data privacy and security vary by industry and by country. In the US, when companies are not regulated by another agency (e.g. the Department of Health and Human Services for HIPAA rules on medical patient data), this responsibility usually falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Read more

A preliminary market battle has been brewing over the past year between technologies to connect IoT devices via wireless wide area networks. These cellular-type networks allow very low power battery devices to transmit small amounts of data over several miles, a solution highly suitable to many types of IoT devices such weather sensors and smart meters. Entrants in this market include Sigfox, LoRa, and Neul. (In addition, standards organization IEEE is developing the 802.11ah wireless networking protocol for distances up to a kilometer.)

Sigfox announced on June 15 that Samsung’s Artik IoT platform would integrate Sigfox support. Also, noted in the press release, but given less attention, was that Samsung’s venture capital arm is investing in Sigfox. The size of the investment was not disclosed. (See Sigfox press release here.) In February of 2015, Sigfox announced that it had secured from a variety of venture capital firms an investment round totaling $115M, reportedly the largest single VC investment round ever in France, Sigfox’s home country. Read more

Few areas of technology or business can match the current levels of interest and anticipation surrounding the internet of things (IoT). Embedded engineering organizations and enterprises alike are struggling to keep pace with the expected rate of IoT change. They are rapidly modifying their business plans to pursue new service revenue opportunities enabled by the IoT. But challenges from tighter time-to-market windows and project requirements that extend far beyond existing internal skill sets is yet again recasting the traditional software build-versus-buy calculation. More organizations now recognize the need for new third-party development and management platforms to help them jumpstart IoT application creation and monetization. Read more

New variables continue to emerge, making software development in both the embedded/systems and enterprise/IT domains more complex – and in many ways, more similar. For instance, the requirement to design software in accordance with regulatory mandates, which is increasingly common in the embedded industries, now also extends into several segments of the enterprise, such as banking. Likewise, the Cloud and IoT are becoming more of a focal point for technology and innovation in both realms. This is driving an explosion in new software-focused business plans, devices, categories, and features, which are more closely tied to high-value corporate and consumer activities. The future of connected, intelligent products – while providing new opportunities – also raises the expectations for continued content delivery and functionality evolution. Read more

At this month’s LiveWorx event put on by PTC (formerly known as Parametric Technology Corp.), the news highlight was the company’s acquisition of IoT analytics firm ColdLight. (See press release here.) ColdLight’s Neuron software for cloud or on-premise datacenters applies machine learning technology to M2M and IoT data, automating predictive analytics tasks. The ColdLight acquisition was a logical extension to PTC’s prior acquisition of ThingWorx and Axeda in the IoT space.

At the front end of the product development process, PTC has assembled software offerings for product lifecycle management (Windchill), computer-aided design (Creo), application lifecycle management and systems engineering (Integrity). Combined with service lifecycle management and the IoT pieces, PTC has essentially created a set of end-to-end solutions for IoT product development and deployment. However, VDC believes that PTC could do more to fill out the middle of its end-to-end portfolio. Read more

With many benefits of IoT becoming apparent, more countries are implementing smart city reforms. This year, India has been the most ambitious in its IoT plans with an allocated budget of Rs. 7060 crores ($1.6 billion USD).

Prior to his May 2014 election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to transform 100 regions of India into smart cities by 2022. As India’s economy continues to rapidly increase with 60% of India’s GDP coming from urban jobs, Modi hopes that the development of new cities will accommodate for the rapid urbanization. By creating satellite cities and improving existing cities, India hopes to improve urban living and increase urban spaces. Read more

At recent trade shows such as CES and Embedded World, attendees couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a sign reading “Internet of Things.” But at this week’s RSA Conference for the cybersecurity industry at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the focus was squarely on security for conventional IT and cloud computing systems, with IoT-centric offerings sparse. That’s not to say IoT was missing, but rather that it’s presence was relatively low key, which is perhaps a good thing after the past year’s worth of hype. Besides, many system implementations that could be considered IoT are extensions of conventional IT. And increasingly, the IoT is becoming about the Data from Things and Data about Things, rather than the things themselves. With that in mind, in this blog post we’ll highlight two companies at the show with distinct new technologies that are using data in creative ways applicable to cybersecurity and IoT. Read more

The rising wave of embedded market opportunities is being carried by the Internet of Things. Technology leaders are quickly coming together to ensure their organizations (and hardware solutions) are compatible with new standards and third-party vendors. Open industry groups and alliances will be instrumental in accelerating the development, deployment, and support of end-to-end IoT products and solutions through the next several years - though this will not be the only approach. Read more

IBM has announced it is establishing a new Internet of Things business unit with more than 2,000 consultants, researchers, and developers, and will invest $3 billion in it over the next four years. Three business areas are being highlighted:

IoT Open Cloud Platform for Industries – vertical market oriented big data analytics services

Bluemix IoT Zone – expansion of IBM’s platform-as-a-service to improve development and deployment of IoT apps

IoT Ecosystem – additional partners for secure integration of IoT data and services (existing partners include AT&T and ARM) Read more

On March 16th at Microsoft’s Convergence Conference in Atlanta, the company announced its forthcoming Azure IoT Suite of cloud services. (See official Microsoft announcement here.) Microsoft has existing IoT-oriented services with Azure cloud—including Event Hubs to ingest data, and Stream Analytics (currently in preview testing) to process and analyze data. The announcement did not provide many details on the new services that would be added, but in general terms it said Azure IoT Suite “manages, analyzes and presents [data] as usable information to the people who need it to make better decision.” Specific features mentioned include remote monitoring, asset management and predictive maintenance. Read more