The Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), Mobility and the Cloud, Perfect Together?

View from the Cloud

The Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), Mobility and the Cloud, Perfect Together?

By Peter Bernstein, Senior Editor  |  April 06, 2015

There is no denying that when it comes to “Big Things” in the technology world, whether they are next or already here, if look at any predictions list for 2015 you are more than likely to see the terms Internet of Things (IoT), mobility and cloud as the headline categories with a lot of granularity on what comes next under each. Interestingly, as we move forward, they are not only highly inter-related, but are proving to be virtually and physically almost perfect together. 

How so?

A great example of the inter-relationship of the three was on full display recently at the AT&T Developer Summit, which took place in Las Vegas to leverage the developer crowd attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES (News - Alert)).  In fact, AT&T took the opportunity to announce the commercial availability of its M2X Data Service, its first Internet of Things (IoT) managed service for developers, as well as new design tools aimed at making it easier for Enterprise Developers to create new IoT solutions. It is specifically aimed at industrial IoT applications which is a “big thing” in terms of where the IoT action is going to be over the coming months along with innovations to accelerate adoption of smart home and smart lifestyle devices and services.

If you are a developer focusing on the industrial IoT market, AT&T (News - Alert) has opened its doors for you with welcoming arms. Effective now, enterprise customers can purchase commercial plans for the M2X Data Service, a carrier-grade cloud-based data store that makes it easier to collect, analyze, and share time-series data from connected devices.

“In the Industrial IoT world, connecting devices and machines to the Internet only has value if you can effectively store, analyze and leverage the data that’s being transmitted,” said Mike Troiano, vice president, Industrial Internet of Things, AT&T Mobility. “Our M2X Data Service allows businesses of all sizes to manage and better utilize the data they collect from connected devices.”

The M2X Data Service is by no means a surprise.  It has spent the last year in beta with several companies who have already integrated their capabilities and taken them out for a test drive.  And, AT&T is no stranger to the Machine-to-Machine (M2M)/IoT space where as of Q3 2014,it had over 18 million connected devices on its network and had certified more than 2,200 types of connected devices.

The beta test list is impressive not just because of who but also based on what they are doing. Participants include:

  • Emerson (News - Alert) and its partner Manitowoc Foodservice— are working with AT&T to bring customers new capabilities based on the M2X Data Service, including a commercial kitchen proof of concept shown during the Developer Summit keynote. 
  • Rockwell Automation (News - Alert)—is collaborating with AT&T to deliver cellular solutions that help enable Rockwell Automation customers to securely collect, manage and take action on data from industrial equipment located in plants and remote sites around the globe.
  • Ericsson (News - Alert)—has integrated its Ericsson Service Innovation Framework with the M2X Data Service, and the two companies are also working on future integration between Ericsson’s VEN (Virtualized Enterprise Network) solution and AT&T’s next generation of IoT Services.
  • Samsung—with  AT&T are creating a TiZen device library for the M2X Data Service so developers so they can easily store and use time-series data collected from applications on the Samsung Gear S Watch and other TiZen based wearables.
  •  WiPro—is adapting its key applications including Heavy Equipment and Asset TrackingTM (HEAT) and SmartMiningTM to jointly market with AT&T.  WiPro is also an early adopter of and participant in AT&T’s cloud based fully managed time-series data storage services, M2X. 
  • Numerex—is developing oil and gas solutions to optimize oil and chemical distribution and remote site equipment monitoring.  

As the list of beta users and their collaborations demonstrate, it really is just a matter of imagination when it comes to the scale and scope of capabilities that M2X can help enable. The cloud provides the easy and ubiquitous access that so many IoT applications of all types require, mobile is the media and IoT sensors are the smart devices, many with embedded software, bringing the message, e.g., data that apps can leverage to provide enterprises with both actionable insights and the means for things like remote diagnostics, security and control. 




Edited by Maurice Nagle
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