SageQuest Hires Utilities Market Software Sales Veteran

...large group of industry relationships,” added Engerman. Mobile Control, SageQuest’s GPS vehicle management solution, sets the industry standard for M2M solutions. Recent enhancements to Mobile Control including comprehensive integration capabilities with workforce management solutions, outage management solutions, fuel card integrations ...

ARM Announces Device Platform and Free OS For Internet of Things (IOT)

1 October 2014 – ARM® today announced a new software platform and free operating system to simplify and speed up the creation and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) products. The ARM mbed™ IoT Device Platform has been built around open standards and will bring Internet protocols, security and standards-based manageability into one integrated solution optimized for energy and cost-constrained devices. It is supported by the established and expanding mbed hardware and software ecosystem that will provide common building blocks for IoT devices and services.

This new platform will accelerate the growth of the IoT by enabling innovators to focus on value-add features and differentiation.

The mbed IoT Device Platform includes the following elements:

• mbed OS: a free operating system for ARM Cortex®-M processor based devices that consolidates the fundamental building blocks of the IoT in one integrated set of software components. It contains security, communication and device management features to enable the development of production-grade, energy-efficient IoT devices. It is available to mbed partners in Q4 2014 for early development, with the first production devices due in 2015. Key benefits:

- Enables companies to focus on innovation and differentiation, reducing development costs and time to market

- Free for developers and for deployment, supported by an ecosystem of more than100 OEMs and major chip vendors

- Increases developer productivity by enabling software component reuse for shorter development cycles

- Support for key standards such as Bluetooth® Smart, 2G, 3G, LTE and CDMA cellular technologies, Thread, Wi-Fi®, and 802.15.4/6LoWPAN along with TLS/DTLS, CoAP, HTTP, MQTT and Lightweight M2M.

• bed Device Server: a licensable software product that provides the required server-side technologies to connect and manage devices in a secure way. It also provides a bridge between the protocols designed for use on IoT devices and the APIs that are used by web developers. This simplifies the integration of IoT devices that provide “little data” into cloud frameworks that deploy “big data” analytics on the aggregated information. Built around open standards, the product scales to handle the connections and management of millions of devices. mbed Device Server is available now. Key benefits:

- Improves efficiency, security and manageability for devices utilizing a standards-based and IoT-optimized approach

- Reduces the complexity of integrating IoT capabilities into existing cloud services

- Unifies device and application data management using the same technology foundation and eliminating the need for duplicate infrastructure for clients and servers

- Provides access to a large unified market of devices through open standards and the widely-deployed ARM partner ecosystem.

• mbed.org: the focus point for a community of more than 70,000 developers around mbed. The website provides a comprehensive database of hardware development kits, a repository for reusable software components, reference applications, documentation and web-based development tools. It is already well-established:

- 1,000,000 project builds last year

- More than 30 official boards

- Eight years of IoT server and 6LowPan products

- Five years of 24/7 cloud service operation

- More than 9000 published projects.

“Deploying IoT-enabled products and services requires a diverse set of technologies and skills to be coordinated across an organization,” said Simon Segars, CEO, ARM. “ARM mbed will make this easier by offering the necessary building blocks to enable our expanding set of ecosystem partners to focus on the problems they need to solve to differentiate their products, instead of common infrastructure technologies. This will accelerate the growth and adoption of the IoT in all sectors of the global economy.”

The mbed partner ecosystem has been expanded to enable participation by a wide range of silicon, module, original equipment manufacturer (OEM), system integrator, cloud and operator partners. Launch partners for the mbed IoT Device Platform include Atmel, CSR, Farnell, Freescale, IBM, Marvell, Megachips, Multitech, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Renesas, Seecontrol, Semtech, Silicon Labs, Stream Technologies, ST, Telenor Connexion, Telefonica, Thundersoft, u-blox, wot.io and Zebra.

“Today’s IoT devices largely exist in isolation and it has been impossible to realize a truly interconnected world where devices are interoperable with many different cloud services,” said Krisztian Flautner, general manager, IoT business, ARM. “The ARM mbed IoT Device Platform will solve this by providing a common communication and management toolkit that can be used for a wide variety of purposes. We expect mbed to significantly speed up the large scale deployment of a new breed of both IoT devices and cloud services.”

For more detailed information on the vision that has driven the evolution of the platform, take a look at the blog Putting the I in IoT, Thread: What makes it different?, Planes, Trains and … Bikes: Transportation for the Internet of Things.

Partner quotes

Freescale: “Freescale and ARM share a common goal of rapidly enabling the Internet of Things, and Freescale already offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of mbed-supported MCUs,” said Geoff Lees, senior vice president and general manager, MCU group, Freescale. “ARM’s new mbed IoT Device Platform embodies this shared vision, and for customers looking to speed time-to-market, Freescale offers software services that streamline mbed-related development for Freescale MCUs.”

Marvell: “The Marvell E-Z Connect Wireless Microcontroller SoC family, including the MW300 Wi-Fi microcontroller, the MB300 Bluetooth microcontroller and the MZ100 ZigBee microcontroller, is the industry’s most complete line of silicon platform solutions for Internet of Things (IoT) applications,” said Philip Poulidis, senior vice president and general manager, mobile and IoT business units, Marvell Semiconductor. “We are targeting the broadest range of IoT applications such as wearables, home automation and security, personal health care, automotive, lighting and industrial. Marvell’s best-in-class silicon solutions utilize our decade-long leadership in developing embedded wireless solutions and our new products will now be designed to work with the ARM mbed platform to make it easy for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to rapidly bring new, innovative IoT applications to market.”

SeeControl: “This is a much-needed effort to streamline the universe of technologies and options that define the Internet of Things (IoT),” said Bryan Kester, CEO, SeeControl. “The ARM platform offers a superior mix of IoT security tools, protocols and enabling technologies to enable hyperconnected edge networks that deliver a lot of computing without excess power consumption. Our enterprise customer and developer community are more productive than ever with the SeeControl and ARM mbed suite.”

wot.io: “ARM is one of the industry's finest when it comes to microprocessing technology and we're honored to partner with an organization of its caliber,” said Allen Proithis, president and
founder, wot.io. “With ARM mbed as an integrated part of wot.io's data service exchange for connected device platforms, wot.io is further fulfilling its vision to enable anyone deploying an Internet of Things solution to quickly connect, enhance and monetize data for business ROI.”

Zebra: “ARM’s mbed platform will deliver unparalleled opportunities to accelerate and promote the use of standards-based IoT solutions and it’s a perfect fit with Zebra’s ambitions for the future, said Phil Gerskovich, senior vice president, new growth platforms, Zebra Technologies. “Zebra’s Zatar IoT platform combined with mbed IoT Device Platform technology will help to redefine the way devices connect to the Internet by facilitating efficient and secure communications.”

About ARM
ARM is at the heart of the world's most advanced digital products. ARM's technology enables the creation of new markets and transformation of industries and society. ARM designs scalable, energy efficient-processors and related technologies to deliver the intelligence in applications ranging from sensors to servers, including smartphones, tablets, enterprise infrastructure and the Internet of Things.

ARM's innovative technology is licensed by ARM Partners who have shipped more than 50 billion System on Chip (SoCs) containing ARM's intellectual property since the company began in 1990. Together with its Connected Community, ARM is breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading electronics companies. Learn more and join the conversation at http://community.arm.com.

Source: ARM

Brazil Exports First M2M-enabled Aircraft for the Military

Guest post by Eva Enanoria, LeadingQuest.
Drones are one of the many applications that involves M2M communication technology today. These M2M-enabled aircrafts, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), do not have a human pilot aboard and rely mostly on onboard computers that are controlled remotely. As the concept of connected and driverless cars is gradually being adapted, pilot-less aircrafts have long been made a reality. In fact, military agencies all over the world have been using drones and other remotely controlled machines and devices in their operations. In fact, the U.S. military recently deployed a drone force in Nigeria, an African country, to help look for the hundreds of women kidnaped by the Moslem militant group, Boko Haram. Considering Africa's current regional arms race, alternative probably candidates embody African nation, which features a long-standing border dispute with Morocco, and Egypt, which is battling Sunni rebels in the peninsula.
Nevertheless, these M2M-enabled aircrafts are not simply employed in military warfare. Some M2M applications involving drones are also used in a small but increasing number of civil applications such as firefighting and other non-military security work like pipelines and surveillance. Recently these M2M-enabled aircrafts are also used for commercial purposes such the Amazon Prime Air that picks up and delivers packages through a drone aircraft.
More recently, the São Paulo-based FT Sistemas S.A, one of the country's large producers of UAV, will soon have the first Brazilian-made drone to be heading to Africa. The company did not disclose details about the said project, but confirmed that this will be done before the end of the year. The Horus is an exploration, military vehicle and too lightweight to hold artillery and weapons. The M2M-enabled aircraft's infrared capabilities enable ground troops to recognize targets in real time from an instrument that may be conducted by troopers on the ground. It weighs approximately fifteen pounds, thereby making the M2M-enabled aircraft to be transportable by foot troopers.
“The Horus FT-100 was designed in conjunction with the Brazilian Army, to be used in typical applications of short range performed by platoons, companies or even battalions,” according to FT Sistemas S.A in a statement last July 28.
Brazil is obviously becoming a major participant in the modern military equipment such as these M2M-enabled aircrafts, particularly in emerging and growing markets that cannot afford expensive military equipments from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corporation or Britain's BAE Systems PLC. Even so, the market is still highly dominated by Israel and the US.
A statement from IHS Jane's Defence Industry said:“The UAV market remains dominated by the U.S. and Israeli defense contractors, but other nations have been heavily investing in the technology, especially for more cost-effective, less technologically advanced solutions”.
The post Brazil Exports First M2M-enabled Aircraft for the Military appeared first on M2M World News.

Vodafone powers NZ’s first digital advertising billboards

The first interactive LED billboards in New Zealand have gone live in Ponsonby, Eden Terrace and Parnell, bringing a piece of Times Square to Auckland. The content is delivered in real time by Vodafone using Machine to Machine (M2M) technology over the mobile network, negating the need for additional cabling and infrastructure.
Extensive testing over the last 12 months has ensured that the billboards – owned and operated by APN Outdoor and supported by Ngage Media – run seamlessly over the M2M mobile network.
The system uses Aerva technology, software that allows the audience to interact with the billboards via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, RSS feeds, pic-to-screen, or text-to-screen.
Vodafone's M2M router can be installed and configured in minutes and offers global functionality, meaning it can be deployed anywhere in the world. The company has over a million M2M connections in New Zealand.
Vodafone's Head of M2M, Tony Bacon says that digital signage is recognised as a growth sector worldwide. “Advertisers are starting to realise that the cost to print is unattractive when considering digital media. Digital allows the vendor to renew their advertising message in real time to suit time of day, weather conditions and other environmental variables.”
“We're also seeing companies adopt digital media as a way to broadcast internal communications,” Tony continues. “Strategically placed screens around the office or factory keep staff updated on company news, the latest campaigns and provide important OSH reminders. Using the mobile network means avoiding additional infrastructure costs and provides the ability to change out campaigns very quickly.”
Ngage Director, Alan Nicholas says digital-out-of-home is the fastest growing medium after mobile.
“It's a $15billion industry and growing at 23% per annum. Digital signage, mobile and Wi-Fi will be the key methods advertisers use to communicate to the market. Billboards will feed you personalised information, make decisions on what to display according to who is looking at it – and will identify viewers by the mobile in your pocket.”
Nicholas continues: “We're moving fairly rapidly to a time when what appears on screens and what happens to get it there will be far more than a simple case of operators telling machines what to play and when. Right now, a person managing and scheduling a network is something of a musician. Soon, those people will be arranging and conducting orchestras, with many, varied instruments (those things) potentially adding to the sound.”
The post Vodafone powers NZ's first digital advertising billboards appeared first on M2M World News.

Eurotech Signs Distribution Agreement with Mouser Electronics

Eurotech, a leading supplier of embedded technologies, products and systems, today announced they have signed a distribution agreement with Mouser Electronics, a worldwide distributor of semiconductors and electronic components.
Under the terms of the agreement, Mouser Electronics will promote and resell Eurotech's portfolio of products to their customers including embedded boards and modules, M2M devices and systems, and M2M software and tools to enable the Internet of Things.
Hilary Tomasson, Vice President of Marketing for Eurotech North America, said:
“Mouser specializes in new product introduction, giving designers, developers, engineers and buyers a place to find the latest in electronic technologies to help them develop next generation projects. The distribution agreement with Mouser will give us visibility to people on the front end of the design process as they look for solutions to enable the Internet of Things.”
“Selection, speed and accuracy are at the core of our operations, and distributing Eurotech products will allow us to offer more industry-leading solutions in our portfolio,” said Jeff Newell, Sr. Vice President of Products, Mouser Electronics.
“Our customers are looking for new technologies to simplify new product introduction and connect to the Internet of Things, and Eurotech is known for M2M solutions that speed time to market.”
Mouser offers customers 20 global support locations and stocks the world's widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects. Mouser Electronics' website is updated daily and searches more than 8 million products to locate over 2 million orderable part numbers available for easy online purchase with no required minimum order.
The post Eurotech Signs Distribution Agreement with Mouser Electronics appeared first on M2M World News.

u-blox acquires IP for industrial Wi-Fi

Antcor acquisition strengthens u-blox' technology for robust short-range connectivity.
Swiss u-blox (SIX:UBXN), a leading provider of wireless and positioning semiconductors and modules for the automotive, industrial and consumer markets, has acquired the company Antcor, a developer of Wi-Fi baseband intellectual property (IP).
The acquisition consists of a purchase of 100% of the shares of Antcor Advanced Network Technologies S.A. at a price of EUR 5.2 million (CHF 6.3 million), in addition to an earn-out which offers the sellers the possibility to participate in certain future revenues of the company.
The transaction gives u-blox immediate ownership of advanced Wi-Fi core technology that will enable the company to develop ruggedized communication solutions tailored to demanding environments.
Thomas Seiler, u-blox CEO, said:
“The acquisition of Antcor's technology and expertise significantly strengthens our chip design capabilities for short range wireless communications. Their technology is a perfect complement to our wireless communications and global positioning activities and expands our ability to deliver robust, end-to-end M2M communication solutions to our customers.”
Founded in 2004, Antcor is a privately-held VC backed company with headquarters in Athens, Greece. With 25 highly qualified employees, Antcor specializes in Wi-Fi software development.
For more information about Antcor, visit www.antcor.com
The post u-blox acquires IP for industrial Wi-Fi appeared first on M2M World News.

Utilities – from risky business to smart, successful connectivity

Guest post by Angus Panton, Director of Power and Communications at software quality specialist, SQS Group Ltd.
Utilities are driving much of the action in consumer M2M – but it's a disruptive technology for suppliers and needs careful quality control.
Players in the world of M2M communications are focusing on one of the fastest growing application sectors: energy and utilities. Consumer-based equipment such as smart meters and internet-controlled heating controls will be rolled out to possibly hundreds of millions of homes to help save energy and give people smarter options for managing their lifestyles.
Major consumer electronics players are now making moves into smarter home technology, such as Apple with its HomeKit – a suite of tools to control most home devices from iPhones and iPads. This will be big business indeed, and there is likely to be a flood of apps for the consumer utilities market in particular. By 2023, two-thirds of the 30 billion smart, wirelessly connected devices in homes and industry worldwide will be for utilities, as recent research by Analysys Mason shows.
Already, markets such as the UK, Germany and the US are seeing the introduction of remote and automatic central heating controls run from mobile devices, enabling consumers to manage their energy costs using web-based technology that has driven so much innovation and convenience in other areas such as mobile commerce and social media.
Take the UK, where three players are active in wireless home heating controls: Hive, owned by energy giant British Gas; the Google subsidiary, Nest Labs; and German firm tado. Each uses mobile device apps to simplify the process of running home central heating from anywhere. Functions include:
automatic response to weather patterns;
firing up the heating from a location app when a resident is heading home; and
learning from a householder's manual tweaks to replicate them automatically.
For energy suppliers, empowering users to keep on top of their consumption using smart, connected devices is rapidly becoming a differentiator in the largely commodity-based utilities market, and in turn can provide suppliers with a potential goldmine of marketing, customer data, operational opportunities and substantial revenues.
And for society the potential prize is huge in terms of cutting and controlling energy consumption. British Gas estimates, for example, that as many as 7.8 million homes are being heated every year in the UK while no one is at home.
But like other areas in the new world of IoT, there are various technological and regulatory hurdles that carry risk for utilities entering the market. Should the security of the system be breached or should the installation fail to fulfil claims for its performance then consumers may lose trust. To add pressure, suppliers may have regulators and governments breathing down their necks as demands for energy savings take hold.
The pace of growth of smart technologies in energy will depend on combining faultless performance with ease of use and security to ensure customer confidence. Naturally, companies are keen to have assurance that applications they offer to the market will work as advertised – and this technology poses particular disruptive challenges given the interconnection issues across networks, as with any complex IT system.
As Adrian Tuck, vice chairman of the ZigBee Alliance, which develops M2M standards, says: “I believe we are about to go through a revolution in the energy space every bit as big as the telecoms revolution.”
Scaling up for smart meters
As well as smart home devices, a powerful spur to M2M growth in the energy sector is coming from the rollout of smart energy meters. Along with consumers' sensitivities relating to security, the sheer size of the programme – from the immense installation task through to the meter's operation – carries huge potential for positive or negative impact on consumer acceptance of smart connected devices. In the UK, replacing 53 million conventional domestic power and gas meters in about 30 million premises by 2020 will be Britain's biggest home energy technology change for more than 40 years.
A smart decision has been made in the UK, as a licence to manage the communications infrastructure for the Smart Metering Implementation Programme has been granted to a special company, the Data and Communications Company (DCC). But there is trepidation within the energy industry. For example, as Neil Pennington, smart programme director at energy firm RWE npower, said recently at an industry seminar: “Testing must be robust – end-to-end across industry parties and the DCC, and in live situations. If interoperability is not consistent and systems and processes not failsafe, it risks undermining consumer confidence.”
The imperative to test rigorously is clear. Large energy suppliers must be ready for DCC interface testing in autumn 2015. They have huge rollout profiles that will run to installing tens of thousands of meters a week.
Even before smart metering is in play, the installation programme carries significant risk. Any programme that involves home visits increases reputational risks from poor service. According to consultant Ernst and Young: “With so little upside, the energy supplier is looking carefully at the costs and risks.”
Quality to the fore
Arguably installation will be the first “big data” challenge in the smart metering programme. The task will involve upgrades in their information technology including changes in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, asset management, job scheduling and handheld devices.
Interfaces and back-end systems will have to be tested to ensure they can handle the accelerating load as it increases through rollout. Much complex integration and operation acceptance testing will be required and will need careful management.
Software quality is now playing an increasingly important role in the value of organisations, and the sheer pace of change in the energy sector puts such quality into sharp relief. For companies facing such major and looming deadlines, testing cannot be done late in a project lifecycle as it may well be too late to address defects, increasing the cost exponentially.
Energy sector business strategists will surely differ in their interpretation of what is needed for success in a digital utility market. But crucial requirements for the industry and its customers will be assured effective, resilience and reliability in the technologies. And customer experience needs to be assessed equally rigorously because ease-of-use can be as potent in influencing perceptions as sound performance.
The importance of assured performance and usability in connected devices to the development of the energy industry is a responsibility that the testing industry is keenly sensitive to. IoT offers energy firms a real opportunity to connect better with its customers. For the energy sector, confidence in smart, connected technology will be the fuel it needs to achieve, and benefit from, the pace of change the market will surely demand.
Smart home device under test
A UK energy utility venturing into the remote energy control market with a new device needed confidence that the product would enhance its reputation by fulfilling customer expectations.
The company needed assurance that the device was reliable, easy to operate and a sound reflection of its commitment to customers. SQS was selected as an independent quality partner to provide expert testing advice based on its utilities sector experience.
SQS provided comprehensive reporting via a “quality barometer” throughout the development of the energy control device. Specific testing included early testing to ensure that operation was intuitive and reliable as well as the device was easy to use, and engaging the utility company closely during a peak simulation exercise – with the IT infrastructure architect and database administrators present at test runs.
Repeat testing on a range of browsers was carried out and testing on different mobile screens was vital. Testing on the prototype version was manual to prevent any incorrect images or content being missed. Non-functional tests included failover and disaster recovery with a priority being to ensure user settings were preserved in either instance.
Ultimately, the utility company had confidence to be one of the first to launch a new, efficient, reliable and secure remote energy control service successfully.

About SQS
SQS (Software Quality Systems) is the world's leading specialist in software quality. This position stems from 30 years of successful consultancy operation. SQS consultants provide solutions for all aspects of quality throughout the whole software product lifecycle driven by a standardised methodology and deep experience in various industries. Headquartered in Cologne, Germany, the company employs approximately 4,000 staff. For more information, see www.sqs.com.

The post Utilities – from risky business to smart, successful connectivity appeared first on M2M World News.

Semtech Announces Microchip as an Adopter of LoRa™ Technology to Target IoT

LoRa RF platform now available for IoT applications through expansive ecosystem.
Semtech Corp. (Nasdaq: SMTC), a leading supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, today announced that Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP) has adopted Semtech's long-range LoRa™ RF technology. Microchip is developing LoRa technology-based solutions that target Internet-of-things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M), metering, security, and industrial-automation applications, among others.
Microchip, a leading provider of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP solutions, is already an IoT/M2M market leader, offering end-to-end IC solutions that include certified wireless modules, sensors and eXtreme Low Power PIC

Are M2M security solutions necessary for IoT?

Guest post by Eva Enanoria, LeadingQuest.
As more equipment manufacturers and developers, particularly for consumer appliances, are catching up with the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) and as most of these devices become M2M connected, new technologies and solutions are beginning to emerge, further speeding up the growth of IoT and facilitating a much smoother adoption process for industries and consumer sections. We are moving into a world where everything will be connected eventually. Several reports have indicated how huge the IoT will become. Today, the market is already big and it is expected to grow even more in the next couple years – up to 5 billion devices connected via a cellular network could be operational in 2020.
All the same, with every new technology comes questions, compatibility issues and security hazards. M2M communication and the IoT is not an exception. M2M connections come with security requirements that needs to be in place to ensure that connections are safe, information is safeguarded and privacy is kept, making them invulnerable to hacking, manipulation and other network threats, thus M2M security solutions are vital.
Agreeing to a report from AdaptiveMobile, there are five specific security threat points. The first point is the nature of M2M solutions, where devices can be unchecked for long periods of time. Security consultant, Chathal McDaid said:
“Many of these devices will see little human intervention for weeks or even months, so exploited vulnerabilities may go undetected for a considerable length of time, increasing their impact.”
The second threat they pointed out is the lack of patches for these solutions. This may also be brought by the lack of openness in the system. Most of these solutions do not have an open-source platform, where developers can create patches for bugs that become a potential security threat. Take for instance, healthcare applications. The role of these devices is to perform and are expected to work for expressly long-life requiring little possibility of upgrading the system.
The next point, according to AdaptiveMobile, is that mobile M2M devices are static devices, mostly embedded and are not easily gotten rid of. Replacing these devices for upgrades can be costly and impractical. Why fix something that is not broken right? However, the lack of patch mentality comes into place once again. Another point is that it can be difficult to include M2M security solutions integrated with some single-task M2M devices. Lastly, the effect of these threats could be more profound depending on the nature of the attack or threat. A security breach against a bank or an account may be an unpleasant. But imagine the kind of attack that could be done on a heart monitor.
AdaptiveMobile said that 100% prevention must be the target and not the cure, which is the traditional approach in digital computing. This means that new M2M security solutions at a network level must be created and delivered.
McDaid said:“With 86% of consumers stating that they see potential risks in M2M technologies, the general public is clearly aware of the challenges present in this new world of communications. To protect subscriber trust in these services, and the core technology, operators must protect them from any security flaws or exploitation from third parties. If operators secure the communications, then subscribers can rest assured that their protection is taken care of.”
Context Information Security, a provider of technical security consultancy, on the other hand, believes that complementary solutions will help ensure that various machines and appliances connected to the network will not create any security risk to the consumers. Context has worked with LIFX on developing a firmware to rectify security issues with their Wi-Fi enabled, energy efficient LED light bulbs. Context also encrypted the network traffic using an encryption key derived from Wi-Fi credentials as well as secure on-boarding of new bulbs onto the network.
Complementary solutions at the same will enable manufacturers to make an assessment on their products security levels before these products are made available to the market. This should help save operational cost and in effect increase customer satisfaction. “In some cases, these vulnerabilities can be overcome relatively quickly and easily… In other cases the vulnerabilities are fundamental to the design of the products. What is important is that these measures are built into all IoT devices from the start and if vulnerabilities are discovered, which seems to be the case with many IoT companies, they are fixed promptly before users are affected.”
The post Are M2M security solutions necessary for IoT? appeared first on M2M World News.

Internet of Things Accelerating Demand for Intelligent Gateways, According to New Research by VDC

The rampant growth of connectivity spurred by the Internet of Things and the spread of cloud-based business models are leading many end users to seek gateway solutions facilitating the deployment of new applications and services.
A recent study by VDC Research shows that the market for intelligent gateway devices featuring a software platform enabling new applications or services will see substantial growth over the next five years. The Internet of Things enables a swath of opportunities for new value-add and commercial software and services, many of which are launching and gaining traction in several different industries. In fact, results from VDC's annual end-user survey of embedded engineers indicates the majority of businesses supporting M2M & intelligent gateway applications plan to deploy cloud services through gateways in the next 12 months. The specific gateway requirements of range, power, latency, and others between applications will lead to more vertical solutions than general-purpose devices.
“Growing networking requirements and opportunities for new B2B and B2C business models will drive the market for Intelligent Gateways,” says VDC analyst Dan Mandell.
“The software platform, which greatly benefits from the scalability of cloud computing and storage, is a chief point of differentiation among vendors of comparable industry solutions.”
“From a technical standpoint alone, M2M and intelligent gateway devices are increasingly sought to provide more support at the edge of embedded networks that are strained by progressively more connected devices and infrastructure.”
The post Internet of Things Accelerating Demand for Intelligent Gateways, According to New Research by VDC appeared first on M2M World News.