How does IoT benefit service providers?
Service providers are scrambling to take advantage of opportunities created by the increasing scale of IoT and connected products. However, the reality they face is also one of mounting challenge to evolve a long-term strategy to keep business pace with this rapidly changing world of IoT.
As service providers are chasing various IoT opportunities their businesses are becoming increasingly siloed with point solutions addressing certain markets. For the benefit of the IoT to be fully recognised, data needs to freely flow between all of the various devices and systems on network. To do this, you need a device management platform that is flexible and accommodates new technologies which are evolving every day.
IoT Device data is the fuel for digital transformation and network providers, both wireless and wireline, have a unique opportunity to monetize it. Wireless service providers should focus on enabling applications driven by device data. Examples of this are asset monitoring, fleet tracking, cold chain logistics, bike sharing, and smart cities. Wireline service providers should focus on creating accessible connected home and connected business solutions that offer their subscribers value beyond an internet connection. With the proper device management platform, a wireline provider should be able to differentiate themselves from Google or Amazon by offering a new level of service with visibility into all of the connected devices in their customers’ homes and businesses.
Tell us about Ayla’s IoT Platform and how it works
Ayla’s device management platform enables companies to leverage device management and application enablement to help digitally transform their business. Virtualization allows any physical device to be digitally represented in the Ayla Cloud, enabling a ‘digital twin’ that sets the schema for data ingest and device management. This virtualization can be enabled on devices running Ayla’s Embedded Agents (with direct communication to the Ayla cloud) and devices that communicate to other 3rd party clouds. Once virtualized, devices can be managed in the Ayla Dashboard using a wide breadth of tools designed to monitor, support, and grow IoT device deployments. These tools include log analysis, OTA updates, user management, data analytics, and much more.
As a ‘device agnostic’ platform, Ayla does not place restrictions on the type of device and is able to support multiple transport protocols including HTTPS, CoAP, and MQTT. In addition, Ayla supports multiple connectivity paths through Embedded Agents running on WiFi or Cellular connected IoT devices (including gateways) with connection to the Ayla Cloud. With device virtualisation and connectivity in place, data is freely ingested within the cloud platform and transported to Ayla’s application enablement layer that powers purpose-built business applications such as customer care and field service portals
What are the most common IoT use cases you are seeing in the market?
Ayla’s customers range from tier 1 service providers and Fortune 500 OEMs to retailers and connected home start-ups. We have unique visibility into the market and trends that are creating real value in the IoT space. In the home, companies are trending towards a unified user interface where a single pane of glass and voice control are priorities. Our Alexa and Google Home adapters make it easy to integrate voice control into our customers’ products and systems. Using our Cloud Adapter Framework allows devices from other clouds to be virtualized and represented in our cloud and applications. These tools, and others, drive towards increased interoperability.
In the wireless space, decreasing hardware costs and increasing availability of low power wide area networks are driving the deployment of environmental sensors and location tracking. Intelligence on the edge around data transmission is increasingly important as LP-WAN networks have low bandwidth and high latency. For instance, sending data to the cloud based on events is one way to maximize bandwidth. These sensors are being deployed in agriculture, commercial fleets, cities, industrial facilities and much more. The data from these sensors allows high value applications to be created and licensed to end customers.