Whether we believe or not in the term IoT, and consequently in the need of having an IoT platform, there is something clear: wireless connectivity and processing technology have lowered their barriers. There are plenty of hardware manufacturers that are creating new connected devices, new applications and new business processes. Products, services and workflows are being shaped by new information coming from new, scattered places.

On one hand, companies that have already been in the market will already have IT systems, databases and processing capabilities. Will they have enough with their architecture in order to handle this new IoT products and services? In our opinion is that, sooner or later, companies will find new problems and situations that will make them reshape the systems, in terms of software capabilities, hardware power, security issues… Above of all, the main challenge they will face, will be the business workflows that support the delivery of goods standing up on the Internet of Things.

On the other hand there will be new companies that will be launching new products, or similarly, companies that are launching totally new departments with the goal of creating a disruptive gadget that will be connected to cloud applications taking care of some business. In this case, IT will grow steadily from scratch, being able to adapt to new discoveries and needs. But here, our opinion, is that they will face hard decisions related with business processes, probably because that making priorities usually relegates designing workflow automation in benefit of business features, which is correct, but not totally. It’s important to have always an eye open in order to avoid future unwished situations.

There is a list of benefits for any company to adopt an IoT platform, and help them focus on their business instead of on the Internet of Things technologies.

1. Single point for adapting protocols and data models for gathering the information and managing the communications
2. Easiness for adding new business applications through common interfaces
3. Creates common best-practices for IoT solutions, specially in defining protocols and deployment processes
4. Scale connectivity and data floods separately from the rest of the organization, allowing for the other application to keep running
5. Adapt to existing workflows through state-of-the-art integration mechanisms
6. Unify Device Management capabilities, simplifying corporate management
7. Separate raw data from business data, dedicating a BigData common for all the businesses
8. Add common IoT functionalities, like threshold detection, to all applications, implementing only once
9. Secures connectivity with devices in a separate layer, simplifying
10. Centralises and reduces the knowledge and task force required to operate and maintain device and connectivity issues

All these features can be incorporated into our IT map with a single box in the architecture. We like to call it IoT platform because having scattered devices requires having a special design in the different components.

In our case, we have included all of these features in our OpenGate platform, allowing for industrial companies to easily move their products to the Internet of Things. We would like to show you in a demo how it works. Please fill in this application form to know more about your business and how we can support you.

Have a look at why you must use an IoT platform and If you have felt these situations.

Do you miss other reasons why you need an IoT platform? Would you like to comment on us why it is too important to adopt an IoT platform?