Market Guide for IoT Integration

IoT project implementers cite integration as a top technical challenge. To help determine which IoT integration offerings best match their IT project requirements, IT leaders must understand that IoT integration requirements differ and that integration capabilities of IoT solutions vary widely.

Key Findings

• IoT integration is a combination of IoT device and data integration, back-end system integration, and third-party middleware integration; directors of integration and other IT leaders must address these requirements via a combination of integration capabilities that include, but are not limited to, secure and reliable communications, application and data adapters, API management support, and translation.
• The IoT integration capabilities vary widely for different categories of IoT solutions (IT megavendors, OT megavendors, IoT platform/edge specialists, integration specialists, API management specialists and system integrators) – and for different providers in each category.
• To fill in gaps in their IoT integration capabilities, IoT solution providers often rely on partners; this partner relationship can be helpful, but it could also add technical and commercial complexity to the project.

Recommendations

Directors of integration, IoT project owners and other IT leaders responsible for integration must:

• Plan for IoT integration to represent half of the cost of implementing IoT projects, so budget accordingly to help ensure successful IoT project implementation.
• Determine your IoT integration requirements – for example, for device, data and application integration – and then compare that with the IoT integration capabilities of candidate IoT solution providers.
• Be prepared to supplement the IoT integration capabilities available from your preferred IoT solution provider with one or more third-party integration tools, particularly to support BOB adapters, translation and API management.
• Focus extra effort on IoT device provisioning and management because there are broad differences across different IoT solutions in terms of what devices can be provisioned and how well they are integrated.

Strategic Planning Assumptions

Through 2018, half the cost of implementing IoT solutions will be spent on integration.

Through 2020, 75% of IoT projects will use some form of stand-alone (third-party) integration platform.

Market Definition

Integration means making independently designed applications and data work well together. Internet of Things (IoT) integration more specifically describes the unique challenge of making new IoT devices, data, platforms and applications, as well as existing IT assets (for example, business applications, data, mobile, SaaS and legacy systems) work well together in the context of implementing end-to-end IoT business solutions. The IoT integration market is the set of IoT integration capabilities available from different categories of IT solutions, which are used by companies to successfully integrate their end-to-end IoT business solutions. The focus of this research – IoT integration – is separate from but related to our research on IoT platforms.

Market Direction

IoT implementers have cited IoT integration as a top technical challenge. Because of this challenge, many IoT project implementers will discover that IoT solutions on the market neither address all integration use cases, nor offer best of breed (BOB) integration functionality. For example, some providers of IoT solutions excel at device integration but are deficient at back-end system integration – or vice versa. Some providers offer their own BOB integration tools (for example, integration platform as a service [iPaaS]), while others partner with third-party technology providers (for example, Bit Stew Systems or OSIsoft) to fill the gap. Nearly all IoT solution providers advocate an "API-first" approach to integration – meaning that they offer and heavily advocate the use of various APIs as a primary way to address IoT integration requirements – but few offer a comprehensive portfolio of prebuilt adapters to accelerate integration with commonly used applications. One reason for functional gaps in integration capabilities is that many IoT solutions are in their first – or few – product generations. Another reason is that some providers have prioritized their R&D investments on more obvious (sometimes perceived as more important) IoT-specific solution capabilities, such as IoT device support, data ingestion and analytics, or security. But we predict that through 2018, half the cost of implementing IoT solutions will be spent on so we recommend that IoT project implementers prioritize their investment in integration technologies and skills to ensure that they are sufficiently prepared to address the wide range of integration requirements needed to assemble end-to-end IoT business solutions.

Market Analysis

The following attributes illustrate the providers that Gartner considers representative of this market:

• The provider offers an IoT platform that is in production and generally available and that is being used by its customers to build IoT business solutions (for example, condition-based maintenance). The IoT platform itself is not evaluated in this research, per se – we focus this research on the approach such providers offer to integrate their IoT platform with their customers' other IT assets.
• The provider – to address IoT integration requirements – offers some combination of IoT integration capabilities that include, but are not limited to, IoT device connectivity, data integration and digestion, data transformation, API libraries (for example, for application integration), choreography, and API management. These capabilities can be fulfilled by either bundled features or third-party add-ons.

In this report, we assess the IoT integration capabilities across six categories of IT solutions, including:

• IT megavendors
• Operational technology (OT) megavendors
• IoT platform/edge specialists
• Integration specialists
• API management specialists
• System integrators

For each IT solution category, we broadly assess what IoT integration capabilities are typically available. For the IoT-specific IT solution categories – IT megavendors, OT megavendors, IoT platform/edge specialists – we also provide specific analysis of the IoT integration capabilities of representative vendors.

IT Megavendors

IT megavendors (for example, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP) have invested typically in their integration strategy and technology over many years (some for more than a decade), and thus they usually have a portfolio of BOB solutions targeted at general-purpose application and data integration use cases, including internal (application-to-application [A2A]), business-to-business (B2B) and cloud service integration. Integration products may include enterprise service bus (ESB), iPaaS, API management or a combination of these in a new, convergent category of integration products. Offerings from these providers are likely to be available both as a stand-alone integration product and as a tightly integrated product with their well-established business applications (for example, asset management) in their overall IT solution portfolio. IoT device integration, edge computing technologies and specific IoT data ingestion capabilities (for example, event streaming) are more likely capabilities associated with relatively new IoT platform/solution offerings.

OT Megavendors

OT megavendors (for example, Bosch Software Innovations, GE, Hitachi Insight Group and Schneider Electric) have generally prioritized their R&D on IoT-specific capabilities, such as IoT device provisioning, data ingestion and analytics, and IoT platform-based IoT solution verticalization. Relative to IT generalists, IoT integration BOB capabilities of OT megavendors are more likely to be found closer to the edge in the form of strong IoT device ecosystems, flexible edge computing (including the ability to deploy logic and data at the edge, or in gateways or in the cloud), and mature support for IoT data streaming and real-time analytics. IoT offerings from these providers are more likely to support common OT protocols (for example, supervisory control and data acquisition [SCADA]), address on-device security, and be tightly integrated with applications in specific verticals (such as manufacturing, transportation and utilities). These providers typically assume an API-first approach and often rely on partners to address BOB integration requirements for cross-vertical business application integration.

IoT Platform/Edge Specialists

IoT platform/edge specialists have generally prioritized their R&D on IoT platform capabilities (for example, scalable cloud-based application infrastructure, data ingestion and analytics, and IoT solution verticalization) or IoT edge capabilities (for example, device hardware and ecosystems, edge computing architectures, and multiprotocol connectivity). IoT integration capabilities tend to be focused more on IoT device connectivity (and ecosystems) and data ingestion (and streaming), rather than on back-end system integration, in which there's often a heavy reliance on APIs for indigenous basic interoperability and security, and a reliance on partners to fill the general-purpose integration and technology gap (for example, for scalable data transformation, data normalization and quality, adapters for select applications, and API management capabilities, including policy management and enforcement).

Example providers include: Amazon, Arrayent, Ayla Networks, Axiros, Cisco, Electric Imp, Eurotech, Intel, LogMeIn, OSIsoft, Particle, PTC, Redpine Signals, Solair and Zebra.

Integration Specialists

Integration specialists do not generally offer an IoT platform, per se, but offer a general-purpose integration solution (either ESB, iPaaS or an extraction, transformation and loading [ETL] tool), which plays a key role addressing IoT integration through the lens of IoT device connectivity and data ingestion or IoT project integration with existing back-end applications and data, or both. They offer BOB data translation, quality and normalization across a wide range of integration use cases (internal, B2B, cloud services, mobile and IoT). They also offer typically a comprehensive portfolio of adapters for different applications (and, increasingly, different devices), support for common IoT protocols (for example, MQTT), and some form of process or workflow orchestration to support process integration. IoT solution providers often partner with (or refer customers to) such providers to fill integration functionality gaps. Details for many integration specialists are available in the "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service, Worldwide," "Market Guide for On-Premises Application Integration Suites" and "Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools."

Example providers include: Bit Stew Systems, MachineShop, Dell Boomi, Informatica, Magic Software Enterprises, Moskitos, MuleSoft, Skkynet, SnapLogic, Software AG, TIBCO Software and WSO2.

API Management Specialists

API management specialists fill a narrow but vital gap in the integration capabilities for many IoT solution providers – that of more fine-grained, role-based API security, and policy management and enforcement. API management is often used in conjunction with traditional identity and access management (IAM) solutions, and as a way of further constraining access to sensitive APIs to only qualified API consumers under well-defined policies. API management capabilities are often available as a built-in feature of IoT platforms, but these built-in capabilities do not typically offer BOB capabilities (for example, flexible policy management, scalable low-latency enforcement, and API developer portals). These requirements become essential when IoT endpoints and APIs proliferate in the context of expanded deployment of end-to-end IoT business solution projects that span from IoT device to IoT platform to mobile apps to back-end systems and data. API management tools can be used stand-alone, with IoT platforms or with other integration tools.

Example providers include: 3scale, Akana, Apigee, Axway, CA Technologies, Hitachi and TIBCO Software.

System Integrators

Providers with IoT-specific system integration offerings tend to approach IoT integration challenges with a comprehensive approach to integration that addresses not only IoT devices and data, but also end-to-end infrastructure integration needs that include back-end system and data, B2B e-commerce, and cloud service integration requirements. Providers will lead with preferred partners for specific integration scenarios (for example, iPaaS for cloud-centric projects), but they also often leverage their customers' investments in existing (more traditional) integration infrastructure (for example, ESB and ETL tools). Given that most IoT-specific service offerings are relatively new, expect that skills in IoT device connectivity and data ingestion will be relatively new as compared with the stereotypical deep subject matter expertise in back-end system integration. Example providers include: Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, EY, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), IBM, Infosys, NTT Data, Tech Mahindra and Wipro.

Representative Vendors

The vendors listed in this Market Guide do not imply an exhaustive list. This section is intended to provide more understanding of the market and its offerings.

Representative IT Megavendors

Table 1 shows a representative list of IT megavendors.

Table 1. Representative IT Megavendors

GBS = Global Business Services, IFTTT = If This Then That, MCU = microcontroller unit, NXP = NXP Semiconductors, OASIS = Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, PaaS = platform as a service, SDK = Software Development Kit, TI = Texas Instruments, SSO = single sign-on, ST = STMicroelectronics

Source: Gartner (June 2016)

IBM

www.ibm.com

IBM's Watson IoT Platform assembles a portfolio of IBM's capabilities to support clients. For the edge, IBM has its Watson IoT Platform Agent, and it works with partners such as ARM, Intel and MultiTech. Specific IoT edge computing devices that the platform works with include Texas Instruments' CC3200, NXP Semiconductors' Kinetis 64 microcontroller, National Instruments' Single-Board RIO and Harman's Pulse 2 speaker. For integration, IBM uses its solutions, including IBM Message Connect, IBM DataWorks and a suite of IBM cloud integration products. IBM supports MQTT, HTTPS, WebSockets and other messaging protocols via gateways. IBM uses Watson IoT Platform APIs documented in Swagger for its API approach, while doing API management via IBM API Connect and security via IBM QRadar and IBM SSO. IBM can be supplemented with a variety of third-party middleware, such as Cisco Jasper Control Center and Orange Business Services' IoT Platform (for IoT communications), IFTTT (for integration SaaS), and Node-RED (for process flow editor), while working with partners such as HCL Technologies, Capgemini or Arrow.

Microsoft

www.microsoft.com

The Microsoft IoT platform offering is based on a range of Microsoft Azure PaaS capabilities, including both generic and IoT-specific services. The latter includes the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, which provides MQTT, HTTPS and AMQPS device connectivity, as well as Lightweight Machine-to-Machine (LWM2M)-based device management, monitoring and authentication capabilities. The open-source Azure IoT Device SDK and Azure IoT Gateway SDK (currently in beta) support edge integration capabilities for devices and for third-party Eclipse Kura-based gateways. The Microsoft Azure IoT Suite integrates the Azure IoT Hub with various other "generic" Azure services, which are relevant for a wide range of IoT projects. These include Azure Machine Learning, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Storage, Microsoft Power BI, Azure Web Apps (the application development and execution environment), Azure Logic Apps (Microsoft's integration PaaS) and other services. The suite also provides a single integrated user experience and a set of predefined service configurations that are deployed by customers as single installs.

Oracle

www.oracle.com

Oracle's IoT suite spans Oracle's edge technologies, IoT platform (Oracle IoT Cloud Service), and enterprise applications (for example, Oracle Service Cloud, Oracle EBS eAM and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne). Implementers leverage these elements to integrate new end-to-end IoT data-enhanced business applications (for example, condition-based asset maintenance). Oracle IoT edge technologies include the Oracle IoT Client Library, and Oracle IoT Cloud Service Gateway for device virtualization and connectivity to the Oracle IoT Cloud Service; the gateway provides stream analytics, a graphical user interface and device storage. Oracle IoT Cloud Service offers many integration options via adapters (for example, for Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Oracle BI Cloud Service and third-party applications), its iPaaS (Oracle Integration Cloud Service), rules and choreography (Oracle Process Cloud Service), and mobile app integration (Mobile Cloud Service). Oracle IoT Suite REST APIs are available for IoT devices, data, applications and so forth, and these can be governed via Oracle API Manager Cloud Service (part of Oracle SOA Cloud Service).

SAP

www.sap.com

SAP has a comprehensive approach to IoT integration for its IoT platform (Hana Cloud Platform IoT Services) that spans devices, mobile apps, cloud, back-end systems and its B2B network. Its SAP IoT Intelligent Edge bundle includes SQL Anywhere UltraLite (for local data caching), Streaming Lite (for local event processing), and SAP Plant Connectivity (for devices in manufacturing). Hana Cloud Integration (an iPaaS) and SAP Process Orchestration are used for application (for example SAP ERP and S/4HANA) and business network integration (for example, Ariba). Other integration capabilities include SAP Hana Smart Data Streaming (event stream processing platform), SAP Hana remote data sync (used with SQL Anywhere) and SAP Data Services (ETL for high-volume data integration). SAP partners with OSIsoft and Telit for IoT device support, Cisco Jasper for mobile/endpoint connectivity, Apigee (sold as SAP API Management) and Solace Systems for high-performance messaging. Examples of preintegrated IoT applications include SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service, SAP Networked Logistics Hub and SAP Asset Intelligence Network.

Representative OT Megavendors

Table 2 shows a representative list of OT megavendors.

Table 2. Representative OT Megavendors

DECT = Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, IEC = International Electrotechnical Commission, JDBC = Java Database Connectivity, OM ADM = Open Mobile Alliance Device Management, OSS = open-source software, TCS = Tata Consultancy Services, TR-069 = Technical Report 069

Source: Gartner (June 2016)

Bosch Software Innovations

www.bosch-si.com

Bosch Software Innovations, a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch, provides an IoT platform – the Bosch IoT Suite – which is delivered as PaaS and can be run on Cloud Foundry infrastructures (for example, the Bosch IoT Cloud, its own cloud infrastructure). The platform provides services for device remote management/registry, device/gateway software provisioning, analytics, user management and role-based access. From an integration perspective, the Bosch IoT Suite includes the Bosch IoT Integrations services, an Apache Camel-based capability that enables development, execution and management of integration flows between the suite services and back-end applications and middleware. The on-premises Integration Gateway enables integration with on-premises endpoints. Bosch IoT Integrations also provides API management features. The Bosch IoT Hub is the reliable messaging backbone across suite components and devices, which can be connected directly (via out-of-the-box or custom adapters) or through the ProSyst mBS OSGi-based gateway software supporting a wide range of protocols.

GE

www.ge.com

GE's IoT projects can utilize a seamless end-to-end combination of edge devices, its Predix IoT Platform, one or more IoT-enabled horizontal applications (for example, Application Performance Management), and one or more GE or customer-developed applications (for example, GE's Wind PowerUp). For edge computing, GE offers its Predix Ready program for machines, devices and software (for example, from Cisco, Dell, HPE, Intel, Advantech, GE and Qualcomm). Predix Machine is embedded software for localized IoT data processing for GE and other devices. Predix Connectivity provides plug-and-play connectivity between devices and Predix cloud, and Predix EdgeManager manages devices and applications. For application (aka IT/OT) integration, GE offers various APIs, – for example, for analytics (you register algorithms as microservices in the Predix Analytics Catalog), data services (Predix Time Series) for data ingestion, and assets (Asset Service). GE leverages Azuqua (for example, to integrate external data and applications, and implement process workflows). For API management, GE offers its own Predix native solution (for example, for API security), or customers can use other solutions (for example, Apigee).

Hitachi Insight Group

www.hitachiinsightgroup.com

Hitachi Insight Group's Lumada IoT platform assembles a portfolio of its own and partner capabilities to support clients' IoT initiatives. For the edge, Hitachi Insight Group works with partners such as Atmel, Intel and Nexcom. For integration, Hitachi Insight Group uses its solutions, including Pentaho (for data integration and analytics), and Hitachi Content Intelligence, as well as Microsoft Azure IoT Hub. Hitachi supports REST, WebSockets and other messaging protocols. Hitachi uses Pentaho Java API and Pentaho API for its API approach, while doing API management via Hitachi Integrated Middleware Managed Service and security via Hitachi ID Systems. Hitachi Insight Group can be supplemented with a variety of third-party middleware, including PTC's Predictive Maintenance (SaaS), Hadoop and Melissa Data, while working with partners such as Eurotech, Intel, Microsoft, PTC and SAP, as well as Hitachi Consulting.

Representative IoT Platform/Edge Specialists

Table 3 shows a representative list of IoT platform/edge specialists.

Table 3. Representative IoT Platform/Edge Specialists

AWS = Amazon Web Services, BSS = business support system, CoAP = Constrained Application Protocol, DSS = data streaming service, EMS = Edge MicroServer, ESF = Everyware Software Framework, JSON = JavaScript Object Notation, MCU = microcontroller unit, mgmt. = management, PLM = product life cycle management, POS = point of sale, SBC = single board computer, SSH = Secure Socket Shell, TEB = Tramvie Elettriche Bergamasche

Source: Gartner (June 2016)

Amazon

www.amazon.com

The AWS IoT offering is based on a combination of generic AWS PaaS capabilities and the AWS IoT service, which supports connectivity, management and operation of devices. It includes the AWS IoT Device Gateway, which supports bidirectional communication with devices via a variety of protocols (no AWS footprint is required on the endpoint); the Device Registry; Device Shadows, which stores information about each device and acts as an offline replica of the device; and the Rules Engine, which provides incoming message transformation and routing. AWS IoT offerings also include an AWS IoT Device SDK that can be deployed in any OSGi-enabled third-party gateway. AWS IoT comes integrated out of the box with Amazon Machine Learning (machine learning). Additional AWS services that complement AWS IoT include AWS IAM, Amazon API Gateway (API policy management), AWS CloudTrail (API tracking), AWS Lambda (an event-based application platform), AWS Elasticsearch, and other popular services, such as Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Amazon DynamoDB.

Axiros

www.axiros.com

Axiros provides the Axiros Axperience IoT platform, which is available to clients in two forms: as an IoT PaaS and as a set of discrete, container-based software components (for example, Docker and systemd) that clients and partners can deploy in their data center, private or third-party cloud infrastructure. The Axperience offering includes components providing a range of device connectivity protocols, authentication, provisioning, policy management, device configuration management, device inventory, data collection, analytics and API management capabilities. All these capabilities are also available as services of the IoT PaaS rendition of the platform. The IoT platform is complemented by the Axiros Axact – the edge software technology that provides TR-069-based management and connectivity into Axperience for devices supporting a variety of protocols, including MQTT, D-Bus, ZigBee, Z-Wave and others. On top of the Axperience IoT Platform, the company also makes available applications for the smart home, smart grid and POS automation.

Ayla Networks

www.aylanetworks.com

Ayla Networks helps customers with connected products and assets via its Ayla IoT Platform. On the edge, its Ayla Embedded Agent can work with chipsets from Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek or Qualcomm. It leverages partner edge computing solutions, such as BCM4390, MW300 or QCA4010. Ayla works with integration partners such as Weather Underground, Encycle's energy management integration, and WeChat Proxy Service. For application and data integration, Ayla has its Ayla DSS and has built a Zonoff-Ayla Connector. From an API management and security perspective, Ayla has a portfolio of capabilities, such as Ayla dealer and platform role-based access control, Ayla device service and Ayla single sign-on. Ayla works with third-party middleware, including Amazon AWS (IaaS) and Birst (analytics). Application partners include Salesforce and Amazon Alexa; while its system integration and hardware partners include Flex, Innominds, Logic PD, and so forth.

Cisco

www.cisco.com

The IoT System builds on Cisco's strength in networking and edge computing architecture, combined with cloud capabilities (for example, Cisco Integration Platform) to help implementers address IoT integration and implement large-scale IoT deployments. Edge (aka, "fog") technologies target autonomous edge computing and include IoT connectivity (industrial routers, switches, compute and IOx application execution), IoT service and data platform (for distributed IoT applications and data), IoT security (for example, Industrial Security Appliance [ISA] 3000 security appliance and other Cisco security products), and various IoT management and automation products (for example, Fog Director and Field Network Director). Partners (for example, Itron, Fanuc and Alstrom) have embedded Cisco edge technologies into their IoT assets. The Cisco Integration Platform (OEM of MuleSoft ESB and API management) includes prebuilt connectors for OT environments (for example, for SCADA systems) and various APIs (for example, for streaming analytics and distributed computing used in IOx containers).

Electric Imp

www.electricimp.com

The company provides an IoT platform focused on securely connecting edge devices to enterprise applications and analytics. The platform is available as IoT PaaS and on-premises software, and it supports device connectivity, security and management, as well as device data processing. The platform is focused on device connectivity, so it doesn't provide data management or analytics capabilities of its own. However, it provides a rich set of APIs (RESTful APIs, webhooks and libraries) that implementers use to extend the Electric Imp Platform with third-party capabilities. The device-side impOS component provides a real-time operating system and scriptable virtual machine that are embeddable in third-party devices and gateways to enable device programmability and integration. Integration is supported via secure HTTPS/REST connectivity with the central impCloud component, whereby each device is uniquely paired with an "agent" – that is, a Squirrel application that processes data coming from the devices. Agents can interface with external resources (such as SaaS or on-premises business applications, data sources and middleware) via RESTful APIs, webhooks, and the agents also will later support AMQP and MQTT.

Eurotech

www.eurotech.com

Eurotech's IoT offering is based on the Eurotech Everyware Device Cloud. The offering includes the Everyware Cloud M2M/IoT Integration Platform and the ESF, an Eclipse Kura-based multiservice gateway software framework. ESF is available stand-alone, but it is also embedded in a variety of Eurotech boards, devices and gateways. Everyware Cloud provides device management, data management (aggregated real-time data and historical data), event stream processing, security, and connectivity management capabilities. Its integration features include MQTT-enabled device/gateway connectivity and back-end applications, as well as data source integration via RESTful API, WebSockets, AMQP and STOMP. A rich set of APIs enables RESTful (XML and JSON) access to the platform functionality. Additional integration functionality is available via the optionally embeddable Red Hat JBoss Fuse ESB technology. Everyware Cloud is available as an IoT PaaS (deployed on AWS), as a hardware appliance (Everyware Server), and as Docker components (Everyware pods) for private and public IaaS deployment.

LogMeIn

www.logmeininc.com

LogMeIn provides customers with a product management and a connectivity focus via its Xively IoT Platform. On the edge, its Xively Device Agent can work with chipsets from companies such as Qualcomm or STMicroelectronics. It leverages partners' edge computing solutions, such as TI's CC3200 chip family or Option's CloudGate gateway. For application and data integration, LogMeIn offers its own Xively Time Series (for data ingestion) and Xively Data Flow (Node-RED rule engine), as well as messaging and integration services from partners such as Amazon Kinesis, Twilio and Zapier. From an API perspective, LogMeIn has specific items, such as Xively MQTT broker, as well as a broader Xively Blueprint (object directory, libraries and data model), and security in its Xively Identity Manager. LogMeIn can be supplemented with third-party middleware, such as Apigee and Mashery (API management), Microsoft Azure (aPaaS) or Splunk (analytics), and New Relic (status monitoring). Application partners include Salesforce, Microsoft (for Dynamics) and Zendesk.

Particle

www.particle.io

Particle's approach to IoT integration mirrors its edge-focused IoT platform, Particle Cloud. Its Photon (Wi-Fi) and Electron (2G/3G) hardware development kits provide out-of-the-box device provisioning and connectivity, and its device firmware APIs simplify remote firmware updates. Particle's device firmware can be used on many chipsets and boards from providers such as Broadcom, u-blox and STMicroelectronics. Particle's Web REST APIs (for example, for device command and control, event streaming) facilitate basic application and data integration. Particle is often used with third-party integration tools (for example, IFTTT, Twilio) and PaaS (for example, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Redshift and IBM Bluemix). Particle provides authentication via its own Device Management system with OAuth 2.0 support. Particle offers its own professional services, but it also partners with various design companies and system integrators – for example, Ideo (for R&D), D2M (hardware specialists) and Sigma Connectivity (software specialists). Particle is used in a variety of IoT-enabled applications, such as for smart homes, asset tracking and alerting.

PTC

www.ptc.com

PTC acquired ThingWorx and other relevant assets (for example, Axeda and ColdLight) to facilitate the move of many of its PLM customers from traditional product sales to IoT-enabled connected product business models. For edge device computing, it offers EMS (a container for IoT device data and processing), Edge SDK (scaled down for very small devices), Kepware (portfolio of device drivers) and ThingWatcher (device analytics, in beta) – these are used in various combinations by ThingWorx Ready partners to produce connected products. For application and data integration (for example, with PTC's PLM or various partners' applications, such as GE Brilliant Factory, SAP and ServiceMax), PTC offers ThingWorx extensions (adapter portfolio and marketplace), Lua scripting engine (based on Lua OSS programming language), ThingWorx Composer (integrated development environment [IDE]) and ThingWorx Workflow. ThingWorx can be supplemented with a variety of third-party middleware, such as Splunk (analytics) and Apache Cassandra (database).

Solair

www.solaircorporate.com/en

Solair provides an IoT PaaS and other IoT capabilities grouped in Solair's IoT solutions. The Solair IoT Platform, the core IoT PaaS deployed on the Microsoft Azure cloud environment, provides a codeless, drag-and-drop development environment; JavaScript support; analytics, reporting and dashboard capabilities; license and device management, natural-language search; entitlement; planning; localization; workflow; and integration features. All the platform functionalities are accessible via a rich set of RESTful APIs. The Solair IoT Gateway and the Solair IoT gateway framework provide an Eclipse Kura (OSGi)-based gateway hardware and software to support RESTful and MQTT-based device connectivity, configuration management, and offline operations. On top of this, the company provides the Solair IoT Product Suite, a range of seven IoT applications addressing a variety of use cases. In May 2016, the company was acquired by Microsoft, which stated it will integrate Solair's technology into its Azure IoT Suite.

Zebra

www.zebra.com

Zebra's Zatar IoT platform supports Zebra, as well as third-party devices. For the edge, Zebra works with partners such as Atmel, NXP Semiconductors-Freescale and Renesas Electronics. It offers its own devices – such as mobile computers, printers and wireless gateways – and supports third-party sensors like the Bosch Software Innovations' XDK sensor development kit or the Atmel Smart SAM G55. For integration, Zebra leverages ARM's mbed cloud service to integrate with mbed devices, supports LWM2M and CoAP for device manageability. Zatar supports HTTPS, JMS, AMQP, Thread and other messaging protocols, and it has a connector for SAP Hana big data service. For its API approach, Zatar's Avatar approach is an "entity of interest" model of data to monitor or control a device. The Zatar Application API is implemented as a RESTful HTTP API, while the Zatar Developer Zone provides tools for third parties to build customer applications. It supports OAuth2 or SAML2 for authentication.

Market Recommendations

Directors of integration, IoT project owners and other IT leaders responsible for integration must:

• Plan for IoT integration to represent half of the cost of implementing IoT projects, so budget accordingly to help ensure successful IoT project implementation.
• Determine your IoT integration requirements – for example, for device, data and application integration – and then compare that with the IoT integration capabilities of candidate IoT solution providers.
• Be prepared to supplement the IoT integration capabilities available from your preferred IoT solution provider with one or more third-party integration tools, particularly to support BOB adapters, translation and API management.
• Focus extra effort on IoT device provisioning and management because there are broad differences across different IoT solutions in terms of what devices can be provisioned and how well they are integrated.