IoT Platforms – The Experience of Vendors and Adopters

Saverio RomeoChief Research Officer

Beecham Research

DATA[+] Focusing

on Sector needs -securely

[-] Not Enabling Wide Interactions

From the single

application (business purpose)

towards a context with several applications and several datasets

IoT Applications

INTERACTION

UNDERSTANDING

CONTROL

INSIGHT

& more

DATA DATA

DATA

Defining an IoT Platform

• An IoT Platform is an intelligent layer that connect the things to the network and abstract applications from the things in order to enable the development of services.

• We want all this because we want to achieve at least three main objectives:

• flexibility (being able to deploy things in different contexts),

• usability (being able to make the user experience easy),

• and productivity (enabling service creation in order to improve efficiency, but also enabling new service development)

A Simplified Layer Stack of an IoT Platform

Four fundamental horizontal layers:- Communication Service Layer- Device Management Layer- Data Management and Analytics Layer- Application Development Layer

Security is a vertical layer security featuresbeing necessary at all level of stack.

An Evolving Vendor Landscape

New Entrants

Acquisitions

2016

2016

2019

2019

Platform Selection is a Strategic Decision

DiscoveryDeep

AssessmentRFP

Exploring the IoTplatform landscape and short-list platforms that match requirements through tools such as mapping analysis and features assessment.

Technical and business assessment of the short-list through tools such as hands-on evaluation.

Writing specific and robust RFPs for final selection.

Discovering Relevant Platforms through IoT Pilot

List of platformselected

Selected Platforms

Visualisation

Final output: 1) list of platforms matching the adopter’s requirements.2) Company profile and description of offer for each selected platforms

IoT Platform Representation on IoT Pilot

1. Company Profile (150 Words)

2. Geographic footprint3. Main sectors of involvement4. Focus of technological

activities5. Platform and market

strength6. Projects scale in number of

devices7. Cloud, hybrid, on-site

offerings8. Service offered heat-map (It

needs vendor authorisation)

SecurityDevice Multi-AAA

mgmt

Secure

edge/gateway

management

API security

management

Support

Services/Remediati

on Services

threat protection

App DevDevelop/deploy

tools

Application API

mgmtCloud services OBB modelling

location-based

dev tools

Analytics Data Storage

Data

mgmt/integratio

n (orchestration)

Basic Analytics,

Reporting and

Visualisation Tools

Predictive Analytics

Advanced

Analytics

(precsriptive, ML,

Simulation)

Device

Mgmt

Discovering,

configuration and

settings

management

Device Health

Monitoring and

Updates

Support of device

librariesProof of scalability

Device oriented

analytics/Edge

Analytics

Connectivity

MgmtConnectivity type

Network

protocol support

Coverage

(national/internati

onal/global)

subscription

management and

provisiong

Billing, rate and

usage

management

Current Picture of the IoT Space via IoT Pilot

1. 104 IoT platforms represented (11/11/2017)

2. 472 unique companies using IoT Pilot (From 15/05/2017 until 30/10/2017)

3. Every month traffic analysed and represented in Piloted, the IoT Pilot Bulletin.

4. Every six month, overall market analysed in a large report (First issue published on the 10th of November 2017)

Who Is the Adopter of IoT Platform?

1. Vertical-specific solution providers2. System integrators3. Hardware product designers and manufacturers4. Software Developers5. Cities and authorities6. Retailers7. Industrial manufacturers8. Energy companies9. Others

What Does the Adopter Want to do with an IoT Platform?

Source: Piloted 1 – May/June 2017

The large majority of adopters are developing IoT solutions for remotely monitoring assets.

The combination of remotely monitoring and controlling assets is also becoming relevant.

The automation of assets has been chosen by a small number of adopters.

Where Does the Adopter Want to Store Data?

Source: Piloted 1 – May/June 2017

Cloud is the dominant choice for storing data.

Interesting to notice that a good portion of adopters do not have a clear view on data storage.

Does the Adopter Require Integration Services?

There is a clear need of integratingIoT platforms with existing enterprise systems

Source: Piloted 1 – May/June 2017

Does the Adopter Require Post-sale Support?

Source: Piloted 1 – May/June 2017

A large portion of adopters look for forms of support and training.

A small portion of adopters believes that support is not needed

Who is the IoT Platform Vendor?

The cheese was pretty safe!

The IoT platform vendor is an organisation offering services belonging to one or more layers of the stack.

There are IoT platform vendors aiming to offer and end-to-end solutions through extensive ecosystem building.

There are IoT platform vendors focussed technologically or from a vertical of involvement point of view.

• The rate of revenue growth in platforms is also expected to be higher than that of connections and objects.

• In a 5-year 2017-2027 CAGR, platform revenue growth at 17% is the highest compared to 16% in objects and 12% in connections

• The longer term outlook for platform is also expected to be better; 2017-2027 CAGR for platform rises to 18% compared to a fall to 13% in objects and a steady 14% for connections.

• Revenue potential in platforms is supported by platform vendors adding features to their software capabilities linking to analytics, decision making, self service automation, and AI for democratising technical decisions to less technical resources.

22.11.2017 | Strictly Confidential – Presentation

Why IoT Platforms Are Important? Revenue Generator

27%26%

19%17% 16%

12%

18%

13% 14%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Total PlatformRevenue

Total ObjectRevenue

Total ConnectionRevenue

Comparison of Growth Rates

Average 2015-2017 YoY 2017-2022 CAGR

2017 - 2027 CAGR Source: Beecham Research

17

Where do IoT Platform Vendor Need to Invest?

The cheese was pretty safe!

Data Collection and Storage

Data Orchestration

Basic Analytics, Reporting, Visualizations

Predictive Analytics

Advanced Analytics (Simulations, Prescriptive Analytics)

Securing the IoT Data management and analytics

Conclusions and Further Points of Discussions

1. IoT platforms are an essential component of any IoT solution

2. The competitive landscape is extremely alive. That brings a great deal of innovation in the IoT space, but, also creates challenges for adopters in selecting the right platform for their requirements.

3. Understanding (and educating) the adopters to match offer with demand.

4. IoT platforms evolving particularly in areas such as security features and data management features.

5. IoT platform meeting multidisciplinary of the IoT via ecosystem building.