IoT Cloud Platforms

1. Summary

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as one of the key platform offerings of the public cloud. The rise of Big Data, analytics, and Machine Learning fueled the growth of enterprise IoT. Customers connecting their assets to the cloud-based IoT platforms can manage the device lifecycle along with the analysis of sensor data. Any solution based on connected systems consists of two key components: device management and telemetry. Lifecycle management of a device forms the core of device management. It includes everything from onboarding the device to decommissioning it. The telemetry ingested by the sensors helps organizations turn raw data into actionable insights. The report attempts to evaluate IoT platforms on both these aspects.

The current enterprise IoT market is comprised of web-scale public cloud providers, traditional industrial automation companies, and independent software vendors (ISV).

Customers must consider multiple factors while choosing the right IoT platform for their business needs. Enterprises have varied requirements ranging from managing the device lifecycle, integration with existing asset management, and processing device data for predictive analytics. It is important to understand that a mature IoT offering goes beyond connecting devices to the cloud for essential machine-to-machine communication. A mature IoT offering enables tighter integration with the data platform and the rest of the cloud services portfolio to deliver rich analytics and business intelligence. Unlocking the data and gaining insights becomes the most valuable outcome for any organization investing in an IoT solution.

This report analyzes the IoT Platform as a Service (PaaS) market landscape with an objective of helping decision makers choose the right offering. It highlights the key attributes of an industrial IoT offering while assessing the capabilities and maturity of cloud-based IoT vendors against each attribute.