Independent market research and

competitive analysis of next-generation

business and technology solutions for
service providers and vendors

IoT Platforms: Chasing Value

in a Maturing Market
AUTHORS: DANNY DICKS AND SIMON SHERRINGTON, CONTRIBUTING
ANALYSTS, HEAVY READING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................. 3

1.1

Key Findings ............................................................................................. 3

1.2

Companies Covered ................................................................................... 4

2.

TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDERS UP THEIR IOT GAME ................................... 5

3.

EVOLVING VALUE CHAINS & THE ROLE OF PLATFORMS ............................... 7

3.1

Where the Value Is in IoT ........................................................................... 7

3.2

Defining an IoT Platform ............................................................................ 8

3.3

Standards ................................................................................................ 9

4.

THE GROWING SIGNIFICANCE OF INDUSTRIAL IOT .................................. 10

5.

VENDOR POSITIONING .............................................................................. 11

6.

VENDOR ANALYSIS .................................................................................... 13

7.

6.1

Aeris Communications.............................................................................. 13

6.2

Amdocs ................................................................................................. 14

6.3

Cisco ..................................................................................................... 15

6.4

Cumulocity ............................................................................................. 15

6.5

Ericsson ................................................................................................. 16

6.6

Jasper ................................................................................................... 18

6.7

Oracle ................................................................................................... 18

6.8

PTC ....................................................................................................... 20

6.9

Telit ...................................................................................................... 21

6.10

Xively (LogMeIn) ..................................................................................... 23

CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................ 24

TERMS OF USAGE ................................................................................................. 25

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1.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Since our short-form report on Internet of Things (IoT) platforms in May 2014, IoT Platforms: A Heavy Reading Competitive Analysis, the market has changed in many respects.
However, there is still a feeling among platform vendors interviewed for this report that the
market for their products and services is at an early stage in its development, that more
change is likely, and that understanding of how the market works is still incomplete.
Positive changes reported by vendors are that the build-it-yourself approach to IoT is starting to give way to increased use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms. And more
telecom operators particularly wireless operators are considering how they can take advantage of the coming wave of connected devices beyond simply providing 2G or 3G SIMs
or connectivity services to enterprises, solution providers or other third parties. Responding
to competition from new network providers, telecom operators are pushing the idea of cellular connectivity direct to devices through the development of new standards and as an
intrinsic part of future 5G networks. The issues of security, standardization and interoperability are also being talked about more than they were in the past.
In our interviews, however, this momentum is tempered with realism regarding the monetary
value of managing connectivity and devices, the sector-specific nature of much data management and analysis and, perhaps, also disappointment about the growth rate of mass-market
residential IoT applications (where the horizontal platform approach may be better suited).
What seems to be happening is a functional enhancement and marketing repositioning of
platforms higher up the technology stack to support the creation of applications built to run
in multiple environments, as well as to provide interfaces to sector-specific data management and analytics engines and tools. Simultaneously, there is a recognition of who is
spending money on IoT, and that is driving platform providers to change their offers and
strengthen their commercial and informal partnerships in order to address the real market
that's out there today: industrial, largely machine-to-machine (M2M)-style IoT.
One vendor summed up these changes neatly: "The market's not floundering, but pivoting
as people understand how it all fits together and what the needs are for commercial organizations. In the beginning, many platforms were built with small-scale innovators in mind.
Many companies, including platform providers, are still working out where they fit, and
we've changed our platform in response to our customers' requirements." He added that he
thought the market was now growing exponentially.
This report examines the market for horizontal, multi-sector platforms to enable IoT applications. It considers the role of, and opportunities for, telecom operators in this market;
considers where value resides in the process of developing, supporting and delivering an IoT
application; and considers how much of this value can be captured through use of a horizontal platform. It looks at the role of standards and the importance of interoperability and
interfaces, and it assesses the offerings of 10 leading vendors of IoT platforms.

1.1

Key Findings

The key findings of this report are as follows:

Telecom operators are looking at IoT with renewed interest as they face challenges
from other communications networks, such as SIGFOX, for their core IoT offers: connectivity

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and management of connected devices. They are cooperating to offer extended network
reach to IoT app developers and working toward new technologies and standards that better
suit IoT requirements.
Value in providing connectivity for devices is falling fast, and platform vendors are
quickly repositioning their products and services to enable more of what an IoT application
needs beyond a cloud-based database of devices and connections with some interfaces
northbound and southbound. Some vendors are extending their scope through acquisition;
others through internal development.
Some standards are emerging as significant in particular those relating to the way
devices exchange data with systems and most vendors believe an open approach with application programming interfaces (APIs) is the way to go, rather than closed, end-to-end
technology stacks.
Industrial, largely M2M, IoT markets are increasingly seen as significant by platform vendors especially the largest IT players, which are partnering or acquiring
technology companies to help them address this market.

1.2

Companies Covered

Companies covered in this report include:

Aeris Communications Inc.

Amdocs Inc. (Nasdaq: DOX)

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO)

Cumulocity GmbH

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)

Jasper Technologies Inc.

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL)

PTC Inc. (Nasdaq: PTC)

Telit Communications PLC

Xively, a division of LogMeIn Inc. (Nasdaq: LOGM)

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2.

TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDERS UP THEIR IOT GAME

According to operators and observers, 2016 will likely see significant momentum build behind IoT, including operators' involvement in platforms and applications. For some time,
forward-thinking operators in North America, Asia/Pacific and Europe have been building
their presence in IoT. While this process has not been completely smooth, we believe that
many mainstream operators are now in a position to benefit from the revenue opportunities
presented by increasing connectivity of things.
Many IoT platform vendors sell to, and through, operators some exclusively so and they
are bullish about prospects. Jari Salminen of Cumulocity says there is definitely a platform
opportunity for operators because "they are good at running platforms and they already
have the connectivity piece."
Among hundreds of IoT-related news announcements during 2015, some recent events
stand out as particularly significant, showing how operators' IoT efforts back up vendors'
optimism:

In December 2015, AT&T reported it had signed 300 IoT deals during 2015 in the
U.S. and abroad, and that about 25 million connected devices (M2M devices and connected tablets) were on the AT&T network with particularly fast growth in the
number of connected cars during the year.

In September 2015, Swisscom joined the original six major international operators
(Deutsche Telekom, Orange, TeliaSonera, Telecom Italia Mobile, Bell Canada and
SoftBank) that created the Global M2M Association (GMA) in February 2015. These
carriers are cooperating to create a global network for seamless M2M connectivity (a
multi-domestic service) using Ericsson's device connection platform (DCP).

Vodafone has been championing the NB-IoT communications standard: In December

2015, the operator announced it had sent the first "pre-standard" message using this
standard for low-power, wide-area (LPWA) communications, in conjunction with
Huawei and u-blox, to connect a water meter to its network in Spain.

In a December 2015 report entitled Unblocking the Value of IoT Through Big Data, the
GSMA mobile operator industry group made the case for operators' expertise in device,
network, data, application, security and identity management, as well as data analysis, reporting, billing and charging, as a pivotal part of an IoT "big data ecosystem."
Vendors such as Amdocs and Aeris have also pointed out the importance of operators' expertise in security and a platform approach to service enablement (capable of
dealing with high-volume, low-ARPU services) as strengths on which to build.

Vendors suggest operators may still take up either a connectivity-only position (in which case
they will need a connectivity-and possibly device-management platform) or a full service enablement position (in which case they need a "service enablement platform" and, perhaps, an
ecosystem of partners to offer broader functionality). They also need to decide how horizontal
their platform offer can be; many are likely to focus on some specific vertical markets and
build platform offers tailored for those applications. Ericsson's Anders Hillbur references one
example of a broad carrier offer: "Operators need to ask themselves the question of how they
are going to exploit the IoT opportunity. Some already have a well-defined and flexible offer
for instance, Telia with its M2M in a Box concept, which can be bought either as a full stack or
as specific solutions with SDKs [software development kits] to enable customization," he said.

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Making a case for sector specialization, Macario Namie of Jasper a vendor that has long
worked very closely with operators says operators make IoT work best when they partner
with or acquires a specialist in a specific market: "We have seen this, for instance, in vehicle
telematics and logistics where operators have a big presence," says Namie. Examples include
AT&T's CargoView service, Verizon Telematics (acquired from Hughes) and Telefnica's logistics service built in connection with Masternaut. Indeed, the ecosystem approach can be seen
across the IoT landscape platform and other vendors, operators and system/solution builders are all putting in place partnerships to better enable them to address specific markets.
Our discussions with vendors suggests that more operators, along with other companies
wanting to develop IoT applications and services, are increasingly adopting the view that
even if they have specific opportunities in mind, they need not build the required platform
technology themselves. Further, they believe that if they are to succeed in the IoT market,
they need to look for help in several areas even with connectivity (the Global M2M Association initiative mentioned above is an example). Ericsson's Hillbur pointed out that while
some operators (such as Orange, Vodafone, Verizon and AT&T) are building their own global
IoT networks, many use third-party platforms and networks such as Ericsson's to build their
IoT offers: "Their own national networks aren't enough to support app developers who have
global ambition (which is most of them). Operators' own networks have been optimized for
specific purposes: some are business-focused; some are optimized for fast data in cities,
some for ubiquitous geographic coverage, and so on," he said.
More widely, operators are looking for help to develop broader IoT offers. An Oracle spokesperson told us: "Operators can specialize in device management and connectivity only; they
can sell their own cloud services and an app development platform like ours to IoT app
developers and service providers; or they can work with partners like Oracle and directly
delivery IoT services to enterprises and consumers."
It is important to realize that there are IoT platforms relating to application-specific data
collection, aggregation, analysis and reporting that are strongly sector-specific. This report
does not aim to cover vendors of those platforms. Further, there are generic data analysis
platforms and tools whose usefulness extends far beyond IoT applications. Again, this report
does not cover vendors of these platforms. Finally, the application development environments, offered as a platform to app builders (and either generic or sector-specific) are also
not covered here. IoT-focused platform vendors tell us that the industry is increasingly recognizing that applications will be built using customers' own choice of app development
environment whether that is a widely used enterprise software environment, such as SAP
or Oracle, or a sector-specific environment.
Section 3 looks at how IoT platforms and other components of value in IoT fit together.

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3.

EVOLVING VALUE CHAINS & THE ROLE OF PLATFORMS

When we interviewed vendors for this report we asked them whether there was a settled
view of the IoT value chain: Their responses were varied. There was a consensus that value
existed in a long chain stretching from devices and communications modules at one end,
and from end-user applications (for consumers and businesses) at the other end. They also
agreed that, in between, there was value in device and connectivity management, data collection, analysis and reporting. But many pointed out that vertical markets exist: In effect,
there is no single "IoT value chain"; further, the specific data requirements of each IoT
application are what makes these value chains complex.
This difficulty translates into a somewhat complex market that is only now becoming more
mature. Jasper's Namie feels it necessary to define where his company one of the longerestablished in IoT platforms currently positions itself. He says that these are still the early
days of IoT and it's too soon to call it an industry: "The situation is very messy, and many
companies offer all sorts of things, but we are clear: We focus on service lifecycle management. The service lifecycle varies per sector, but our platform can support these different
lifecycles because it is configurable and customizable."
Increasingly, platform vendors are trying to identify the right role for their technology in different markets, a response to fluidity in the way IoT applications are built and offered, as
well as some changes in the value of different parts of this process.

3.1

Where the Value Is in IoT

Analysis of the distribution of value across the chain outlined above is difficult, though analysts, including McKinsey Global Institute, have attempted to do this in a very
comprehensive report into IoT value, The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value Beyond the
Hype. But as Jari Saminen of Cumulocity pointed out: "Where the value is created varies
from vertical to vertical." And Oracle acknowledged that pricing models for its white-label
IoT platform services also vary somewhat by application, with recurring charges on a peruser or volume basis whichever makes most sense for the specific service.
Some vendors quote benchmarks: Russ Fadel, from industrial IoT specialist vendor PTC,
says "45 percent of the value in the IoT value chain is in the app enablement and the app
itself; 25 percent is in the comms network." Oracle told us that only around 10% of spend
on IoT services will go on connectivity. Fadel agrees that value in connecting devices to the
Internet is not what it was at the start of 2015: "There is intense price pressure in the device cloud market we've seen prices drop from 40 cents per connected device per month
to 2 cents over the last year or so," he says. This has profound implications for vendors
whose platforms have been built to provide just that functionality: They must be capable of
scaling and delivering connectivity management very cheaply.
Some vendors are confident they can deliver. For instance, Janet Jaiswal, VP of marketing
at Aeris, told us: "Our platforms were purpose-built to support very large scale and end-toend IoT/M2M applications; the price of connectivity management is falling, but we are profitable even at low connectivity ARPU."
The primary reason prices are falling in connectivity management is that the growth in the
number of connected things, while rapid, has not been sufficiently explosive to stop an
oversupply of cloud-based services that enable devices to be connected. Vendors told us

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that there are hundreds of device cloud providers worldwide, and basic economics says
prices will fall.
Simultaneously, the build-it-yourself approach in many areas of IoT is giving way: "We are
at that point in the market where the IoT space is moving toward commercial off-the-shelf
solutions it's becoming mature. The reason for this is that COTS application development
platforms can now take away a lot of the technical problems of setting up IoT applications,"
says Fadel of PTC. One issue that typically emerges at this stage of market development
where horizontal platform approaches are being adopted is that of interoperability and
standardization. We'll look at this in more detail in Section 3.3, but first we need to be
clear about what platforms we are dealing with.

3.2

Defining an IoT Platform

Figure 1 shows our view of the IoT technology stack, identifying some specific types of
platform. As we pointed out earlier, there are some products and services that fulfil platform
requirements (ability to interface to multiple devices or processes or applications) that are
nonetheless developed with a specific, often vertical-market-oriented set of users and applications in mind (particularly in the data management Layer 4).
Figure 1: Technology layers in IoT

Source: Heavy Reading

There are also some generic data analysis platforms (at Layer 4) and application development environments (at Layer 6) that have broader applicability than just IoT. Vendors
covered in this report typically provide products and services at Layers 3 and 5. Layer 5 in
Figure 1 is highlighted because this is where many vendors are focusing their efforts perceiving there to be more value at this layer while recognizing the importance in the stack

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of data analytics as deployed applications scale up and users' focus switches to operational
aspects of the application.
But not all connection management platforms and approaches are the same. For instance, a
major question concerns whether it should be integrated with a specific network (typically a
public wireless network) or be more open to include other communications technologies.
There are certainly serious competitors to public networks notably the license-free, spectrum-based SIGFOX cellular network that aims to cover 60 countries and has launched in 12
(as of the end of 2015).
Whether or not the platform resides in the cloud or in specific data centers is another differentiator. Jasper, for instance, is in the latter camp; Oracle points out that a cloud gateway
enables processing logic to be created closer to the device, which can reduce latency; Telit's
Fred Yentz says that the very many cloud-based connection management platforms sometimes deliver low levels of functionality. "[They have] some APIs for data collection and
some APIs so that you can use the data you collect; [they are] just a dual-ported database
in the cloud," he says.
As we noted earlier, the fact that IoT applications vary so much from sector to sector and
from user to user means that platforms to enable services (at Level 5 in Figure 1) can, at
best, provide some reusable components and appropriate interfaces, which is what many
vendors now aim to do. But where existing applications are becoming IoT applications, there
are legacy systems to be integrated, and appropriate interfaces are not always available
without extensive customization. As Anders Hilbert of Ericsson notes: "The less legacy there
is to integrate, the more horizontal platforms will work."

3.3

Standards

There is a large number of places in the process of building an IoT application where interoperability and standards might apply, but not all of them are appropriate for a
standards-based approach. Some believe that openness, APIs (Jasper, for instance, says it
offers over 100, northbound and southbound), SDKs and interoperability demonstration is
more important than standardization, while acknowledging the significance of some standards: "There are few M2M or IoT standards yet the open approach supports the quicker
development of a bigger ecosystem, but the lightweight OMA standard is important because
it enables devices to be plug-and-play. We have participated in interoperability tests during
2015," says Salminen of Cumulocity. He adds that a closed-stack, end-to-end approach is
advocated by some vendors.
Fadel of PTC notes that it's easier to have standards for device connectivity (such as MQTT
and CoAP) than for application data, where he says a RESTful interface and support for automated discovery are needed: "We see the value of over-the-air lightweight device
management standards so we will support these as they become established," he adds
while recounting that "standards are like toothbrushes: Everyone knows you need them, but
no one wants to use somebody else's."

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4.

THE GROWING SIGNIFICANCE OF INDUSTRIAL IOT

Automotive IoT applications have been significant for operators and major vendors for some
time (for instance, Volvo's connected car services have been supported by the Ericsson IoT
platform service, and both U.S. giant operators Verizon and AT&T have established telematics services). Device cloud platform service vendors have focused on enabling novel
consumer and business IoT applications and services by lowering the barriers to getting devices connected to the Internet. But a third sector of the market and one that we believe
will be increasingly significant is industrial automation.
Factories, utilities and other large, complex industrial segments have always been highly
automated. In general, these industries have developed sector-specific technologies to connect equipment to control systems; the availability of low-cost (and wireless) sensors and
communications modules developed and manufactured in high volumes as the potential of
the IoT becomes clearer means that legacy Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
(SCADA) systems can be significantly enhanced, their range extended and their scope increased. The Industrie 4.0 concept developed in Germany and involving Deutsche Telekom
and Siemens has gained traction around the world as a description of the potential of industrial IoT; in the U.S., an industrial Internet project involving AT&T, Cisco, General Electric
and Intel that has been running since 2013 has similar aims.
Here, though, the dynamic world of the Internet meets the somewhat slower world capexheavy manufacturing, with its typically long-term investment cycles and in many sectors,
risk-averse mindset. But vendors are enthusiastic about prospects for their platforms, with
industrial sectors maturing quickly and healthcare and medical markets a little further behind. Telit pointed to the effort being put into device connectivity standardization in
manufacturing, citing the MQTT connectivity protocol: "It's ANSI-approved and created specifically for M2M connectivity. There will be some dissenters to the standards-based
approach, but it will prevail," said the company's Yentz.
There has been significant merger and acquisition (M&A) and ecosystem-building activity in
the industrial IoT field as industrial automation giants look to ensure that IoT start-ups don't
eat their lunch and large Internet players recognize the importance of this large market sector. Examples include Telit's acquisition of ILS Technology, industrial control specialist PTC's
acquisition of IoT platform vendors Axeda and ThingWorx (as well as data analytics company Coldlight), Cisco's investment in "intelligent plant" specialist Covacsis, and
partnerships with Itron and RivaSoft, and the establishing of partnerships between multiple
IoT platform vendors and industrial data analytics platform GE Predix.
What the platform players are trying to achieve (if they don't have it already) is domain
competence so that they can understand the intricacies of the data acquisition, analysis and
reporting that we identified earlier as the stubbornly sector-specific aspect of IoT, and enable user-specific applications for industrial businesses. Jasper's Namie points out that this is
where business customers often need help: "The biggest challenge for enterprises is choosing the service they want (to deliver) and HOW to deliver itvertical market expertise is
vital." His view is that the technology isn't actually that difficult, and that while system integrators can develop solutions, it remains a niche area for some of them.

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5.

VENDOR POSITIONING

The vendors profiled in this report represent a subsection of the very many providers of
platforms supporting IoT applications. We have focused on those vendors that have gained
significant traction in the market through number or size of deals done, or whose approach
is distinctive, or who are major providers to the telecom sector. As well as specialist vendors, or the IT product and solution companies that have a significant communications
focus, others also develop platforms for IoT examples include big IT solution providers,
such as HP, PwC and IBM, that have been building their own capabilities in this space.
As we noted earlier, the scope of platforms is changing, and vendors' offers are somewhat
fluid right now as they chase IoT platform value by moving up the technology stack as best
they can. Some we spoke to were not optimistic that all vendors would survive unless they
broaden the scope of what they offer. Aeris's Amit Khetawat told us: "The breadth of our portfolio is a real strength; as the IoT platform market matures, it's going to get much harder for
one-trick ponies." Telit's Yentz said he believed some platform companies were little more
than provisioning platforms for device clouds, though he agreed that new-entrant device
cloud companies could teach established players about innovation in dashboard capabilities.
Jasper's Namie expects consolidation especially acquisition of vertical-market specialist
solution providers by big companies and Xively's Ryan Lester agrees; he sees the functionality and scope of platforms growing. "Large players [will add] new IoT-specific features
into their offerings and early platforms, providing differentiated value to solve key IoT challenges. We see connected product management as a key space where consolidation will
happen as more companies try to run a connected business [as products are launched]
the need to scale becomes more apparent and we will see companies consolidate on platforms that are both scalable and simple to use," he says.
Figure 2 gives our assessment of vendor positioning; Section 6 goes into more detail of
vendors' approaches and offers.
Figure 2: Heavy Reading Assessment of Selected IoT Platform Vendor Positioning
Vendor

Products/Services

Positioning

Aeris

AerCloud enablement platform; AerPort connectivity management

platform; AerVoyance analytics

M2M application enablement and device connection through platforms and co-developed
services and solutions; platforms sold for
white-label service building

Amdocs

Amdocs M2M Connected Device Platform; Amdocs Connected Home

Solution; Amdocs Insight Big Data Analytics Platform

Focus on broadest possible support for communications service providers building IoT
services (though also supporting IoT application developers)

Cisco

Cisco IoT System, including Fog Data

Services (embedded in IOx platform);
IoT Field Network Director management software; Fog Director application
management platform; Cisco IoT Cloud
Connect hosted platform

Support for mobile service providers, but an

increasing focus on industrial IoT and direct
sale to enterprises; broad reach across technology stack layers

Cloud-based Cumulocity platform

Cumulocity (event processing, data analytics,
provisioning)

Service-provider and solution-builder focused

device and data management platform for service enablement

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Vendor

Products/Services

Positioning

Ericsson

Device Connection Platform; Service

Enablement Platform; global connectivity services

Connectivity management, service enablement,

global IoT platform services with expertise in
automotive and some other verticals; support
for operators, large enterprises and third-party
application developers

Jasper

Control Center lifecycle management

(devices, connections); integrated
with sector-specific third-party data
management/analytics platforms

Flexible platform service (SaaS) offered to operators only for white-labeling; partnership
approach with other platform players; increasingly extending beyond connection
management to encompass device management and app development support

Oracle

Oracle Application Enablement Platform (encompassing Oracle IoT Cloud

Service); Oracle Communications platforms for network and policy
management; Fusion Middleware components, analytics solutions and
multiple industry IT solutions

Enterprise and operator support; recent emphasis on device connection, security and
lifecycle management; and out-of-the-box integration with existing enterprise applications,
including those used in manufacturing

PTC

ThingWorx IoT Platform (including

ThingWorx Machine Learning analytics
tool); Axeda Machine Cloud

Service enablement and lifecycle management;

device and connectivity management; focus on
manufacturing industry but has IoT platform
customers in other sectors; sells direct to enterprises, as well as through operators; works
with third-party app developers

Telit

M2M focus; broad technology spread from

IoT Portal solution (PaaS); deviceWISE modules to application enablement; two verapplication enablement platform;
sions of deviceWISE platform sold/licensed (to
modules and connectivity services
operators and to industrial enterprises) and offered as a PaaS end-to-end solution

Xively
(LogMeIn)

Xively Platform for connectivity and

device management

Connected device management (including security/identity management) and service

enablement, for light industrial/B2B2C applications (home or commercial end use); sells
directly and to application developers rather
than large enterprises or mobile operators

Source: Heavy Reading

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6.

VENDOR ANALYSIS

6.1

Aeris Communications

Aeris, founded in 1992, provides a broad range of services that span much of the IoT value
chain; the company has a particular focus on M2M applications rather than consumer applications. It claims it is in the top 10 global providers of device connectivity globally based on
number of devices connected. Where it sells platforms, these are used to build white-label
IoT/M2M services.
The company has grown fast in terms of numbers of connected devices 100 percent year
on year in the last four years which it claims outperforms the industry by three to four
times. Aeris is particularly strong in the vehicle telematics sector where it has built a strong
presence through acquisition and partnerships; its customers include Hyundai, Honda and
Chrysler. In October 2015, Aeris announced a partnership with Isotrak to offer fleet
telematics services. The company sees the automotive sector as its big growth opportunity.
Other verticals where Aeris is strong include healthcare, point-of-sale, fleet, utility and industrial and utility monitoring and control.
Aeris says its key differentiators are its focus on machine connectivity, its ability to deliver
an end-to-end solution encompassing both an extensive technology stack and a range of
network connectivity options, the carrier-agnostic nature of its connectivity and a strong
commitment to very high levels of customer service.
The key platforms underpinning Aeris services are:

AerCloud a generic application enablement platform that the company says enables rapid prototyping, development and launch of IoT/M2M applications. AerCloud is
integrated with an app toolkit (called AppExpress) that uses widgets to speed up
Web-based app development. Development work is currently focusing on user interface simplification and the integration with other applications, such as customer
relationship management (CRM).

AerPort a connectivity management platform built for large scale, that provides
traffic and alert management and reporting, as well as connection management;
Aeris also offers AerConnect, a cellular connectivity service.

AerVoyance IoT analytics software with an intuitive visual interface to help manage IoT/M2M deployments and address challenges of gaining insight into devices,
connectivity and billing information.

Complementing these three core platforms is the AerB/OSS billing and rating engine. Services built on Aeris's core technology include:

Neo a self-serve connectivity service that provides SIMs and connectivity via an online marketplace, reducing the time and cost of dealing directly with cellular operators.

JumpStart IoT a service jointly offered with Tech Mahindra and other service
partners, aimed at cellular operators that want to develop and offer IoT services to
enterprises.

These two services broaden the company's revenue streams to include carrier sell-through;
Aeris says it has around 20 deals for JumpStart, including with Aircell, and adds that it sees

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the carrier market starting to heat up, particularly in Asia/Pacific and Europe. Neo also
opens up revenues from IoT/M2M solution builders. The company also has a commercial relationship with Cisco that resells Aeris solutions, and partner relationships with distributors
and mobile network operators (MNOs) for its solutions.
Aeris says that it will not develop its own end-to-end IoT applications in its existing markets
as it does not want to compete with its customers, but remains open to the idea of developing new applications in niche areas.

6.2

Amdocs

One of the biggest software and service providers to telecom operators globally, Amdocs
has offered solutions for M2M/IoT solutions since before 2013. Notably, AT&T uses Amdocs
solutions to underpin its OnStar vehicle telematics offer, and an unnamed global mobile operator uses Amdocs for M2M partner management. Amdocs sees opportunities to support its
existing operator customers as they develop M2M and IoT services whether those are connectivity based or more substantial service enablement offers. As well as developing specific
IoT/M2M solutions and platforms, Amdocs has been positioning its other core solutions (for
instance, customer experience management, charging/billing and big data analytics) as enabling technologies for IoT.
Amdocs has identified different types of customer from both telco and application developer
sides of the market. These are: mature communications service providers that have a rapidly
maturing IoT offer already; emerging communications service providers that need help to develop their IoT offers; emerging IoT service providers that are product manufacturers
developing services based on connectivity to their products; and IoT consumer electronics
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), for whom Amdocs can act as a route to activate,
register and bill consumers directly for both communications and IoT products and services.
In addition to the company's core customer experience and billing/charging solutions, relevant Amdocs products and solutions targeting one or other of these customer groups, and
involving both its own and third-party partner products, include:

Amdocs MINT: a platform that manages wholesale and retail connectivity and billing. The platform is offered as a standalone, multi-tenant IoT platform that enables a
service provider to rapidly onboard IoT OEMs and generate revenue beyond connectivity. Capabilities include an OEM portal, defining new service offerings, billing and
customer care. MINT leverages Amdocs CES portfolio.

Amdocs M2M Connected Device Platform: the company's core platform that
manages device connectivity. It is offered as a stand-alone platform, an add-on to
other core Amdocs BSS solutions and as a cloud-based service. Amdocs says this
flexibility is important because different IoT applications have different commercial,
regulatory, security and international reach contexts, so a flexible delivery model for
connectivity management is needed.

Amdocs Connected Home Solution: includes the Amdocs Device Connection Platform and home security systems and services from a third party; Amdocs is working
to develop this to include services built for other connected devices within the home.

Amdocs Insight Big Data Analytics Platform: a platform that can be used to
analyze and refine IoT applications and services in the same ways as for other telecom services.

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Amdocs is also participating in an initiative on open data and interoperability called

Matrix.org that aims to establish a set of secure vaults for IoT data (as well as for other
real-time applications, including WebRTC signaling and persistent chat rooms).

6.3

Cisco

Unlike most vendors in this report, Cisco's offer in IoT goes much wider than just connectivity or service enablement platforms, but also encompasses hardware (chipsets, modules,
devices and network) and a broad set of relevant enterprise and service-provider solutions.
Cisco's key IoT offer for network operators and their enterprise and small to medium enterprise (SME) customers is the Cisco IoT System, launched in June 2015. Cisco says it has
built its IoT System on six pillars: network connectivity (routing, switching and wireless
products); "fog" computing (Cisco's term for the distributed computing infrastructure that
IoT will use); security (IP surveillance and built-in security of Cisco's products); data analytics (based on Cisco Connected Analytics portfolio and third-party systems); management
and automation (security, control and support for multiple siloed functions); and an application enablement platform (offering a set of APIs on which others can build applications).
Cisco is betting on the importance of computing at the edge in IoT applications. In the context of this report, the most relevant new-product components of the Cisco IoT System are
those in the final three pillars, specifically:

Fog Data Services data flow monitoring and policy service embedded in the Cisco
IOx platform

IoT Field Network Director management software to allow operators to monitor

and customize network infrastructure, as Cisco puts it, "for an industrial scale."

Fog Director a central management platform for multiple edge applications with
functionality spanning the lifecycle of an app and a way for administrators to have
visibility of large-scale IoT deployments.

The Cisco IoT System is aimed at industrial IoT uses and, recognizing the importance of domain-specific understanding in the data layer for IoT, Cisco has been very active in putting in
place partners in an ecosystem to help it target industrial markets. Companies that have
ported software to run on the System include GE (its widely deployed Predix analytics application), Itron (Riva data aggregation and analytics platform for utility companies) and OSIsoft
(PI real-time data and event aggregation and analytics platform). Cisco has also invested in
Covacsis, a specialist in "intelligent plant" data platforms for manufacturing industries.
Complementing the new IoT System, Cisco's IoT Cloud Connect hosted platform is a hosted
managed IoT platform aimed at mobile service providers. It provides management and automation of IoT services. The platform is built on Cisco's M2M service delivery platform
coupled with Cisco's virtualized packet core solution (based on widely deployed StarOS software) and relevant applications from Cisco ecosystem partners. Cisco says its IoT Cloud
Connect platform helps operators reduce the cost and increase the speed of deploying IoT
services to business customers.

6.4

Cumulocity

Cumulocity began life in 2010 as an innovation project within Nokia Siemens Networks
(now Nokia); it was spun out into a separate company in 2012. Managing director, sales

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and strategic partnerships, Jari Salminen says this telecom equipment provider heritage has
influenced the way its IoT platform has developed with service providers in mind in terms of
robustness, scalability and feature set. The company's focus for its first two years was on
directly addressing the enterprise segment; today its customers are increasingly telecom
operators and system integrators/solution builders. Reference customers and partners include Deutsche Telekom and Etisalat on the operator side (Salminen says the company is in
discussion with over 30 operators globally), and Wipro, Tech Mahindra and Tieto on the system integrator (SI)/solution builder side.
Cumulocity is working with numerous device and module vendors to integrate and, in some
cases, pre-certify their products for use with the Cumulocity platform. Example vendors include NetComm Wireless, Option and Gemalto. Cumulocity offers free trial accounts and
development tools for app developers and other partners. Through its customers and application development partners, the Cumulocity platform underpins IoT applications in industrial
IoT, transport/fleet management, vending machines, healthcare, the utility sector and others.
Cumulocity focuses on device and data management (getting data from assets in the field,
analyzing it in real time and publishing it through APIs) rather than connectivity management (it has partnerships with others, such as Jasper, for handling connectivity). It also
delivers device management functions, such as mass provisioning and over-the-air updates,
and some real-time analytics capabilities. Script-based event processing, a graphical user
interface and a library of dashboard widgets for the platform to help users start to connect
devices and build applications as quickly as possible.
While Cumulocity performs real-time analytics to trigger events and actions based on the
data, it does not provide application-specific integrated data analytics environments: "Our
customers will use the data managed by our platform in their own analytics software," says
Salminen. He adds that "as the final 10-20 percent of the application development is always
unique, flexibility and openness are critical from an IoT platform, and that includes choice of
app development environment and tools you are familiar with already. We provide fully documented and public REST APIs and SDKs to support this, and free code examples to many
device environments like Java, Linux, Posix and Lua, among others."
Cumulocity's revenue model is based on a per-device, per-month fee, which is typical for a
platform provider. The platform can be white labeled, and is delivered from the cloud for
maximum flexibility. Salminen says, "Anything you can do on the platform can be done
elsewhere via an API."

6.5

Ericsson

Ericsson acquired some IoT platform technology from Telenor in 2011 and has significantly
developed its platform product and service offers since then. It already had several M2M-oriented IoT customers in significant vertical markets, including Volvo (for a range of connected
car applications) and the Maersk shipping line (for a sophisticated set of logistics and ship
monitoring applications). The company sees automotive and transport as among its most important markets in the future: Ericsson's Connected Vehicle Cloud offers a way for app
developers to reach a large market, and it allows car makers, retailers and others to develop
new services. Other core markets for the company in IoT are utilities and energy, and Ericsson identifies healthcare and smart cities and communities as the big areas for the future.
Ericsson offers two IoT platforms: the Device Connection Platform (DCP) and the M2M variant of its Service Enablement Platform (SEP). It also offers a full IoT stack as a service and

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it demonstrated a solution alongside other members of the Global M2M Association at Mobile
World Congress in February 2015. Ericsson has also been working to develop the new mobile technologies that will enable use of IoT applications in the future, such as low-power
radio modules and the next generation of mobile technologies for 5G that will enable low latency and orders-of-magnitude increases in the number of connections.
Ericson's DCP aggregates devices (sensors and modules) and the messages to and from
those devices at a gateway that connects to a network. The company sells the DCP to wireless and wireline telecom network operators, and into some specific verticals as a prime
solution provider, including the automotive sector. Ericsson says that one enterprise per day
is being added to DCP.
Figure 3: Ericsson's Positioning in the IoT Market & Technology Stack

Source: Ericsson (used with permission)

Anders Hillbur of Ericsson's cloud and IP business unit says that the network and connectivity management are, de facto, a common architecture and platform for all applications:
"This part of the IoT value chain requires a platform approach so new applications can be
developed by multiple users," he adds.
Hillbur says that it is important to be able to deploy a global platform that can deal with the
situation that operators' core networks are all slightly different. "For a global IoT application
developer or service provider, it is better not to have to integrate the application separately
with multiple operators' networks, but to use a global system and platform. That's what Ericsson offers." Of course, operator customers of Ericsson can offer this to customers on a
global basis, too.
Ericsson says service enablement can also be made horizontal, though the company recognizes that the more legacy technology there is to be integrated, the harder it is to adopt a
platform approach. Its SEP is composed of several products that, together with products
from ecosystem partners, enable service creation and exposure, ecosystem management,
personalized and dynamic user experience management, analytics and data management,
customer and revenue management, and device management.

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6.6

Jasper

Jasper is one of the longest-established vendors of platforms for IoT, and its Control Center
supports IoT applications around the world. The company's platform supports services offered and used by some of the biggest names globally, including operators AT&T and
Telefnica and enterprises such as ABB, Heineken and Minolta, among very many others.
Jasper was founded in 2004 with the aim of supporting what it believed was an inevitable
transition that product companies would make as products became connected and functioned as the platform for services. Jasper believes that the way the IoT platform market
will develop is analogous to the way enterprise software developed: first a do-it-yourself approach, then an off-the-shelf software approach and then managed services.
Jasper's core platform in called Control Center. It delivers rules-engine-based lifecycle management (encompassing device and connection management) for enterprise IoT services of
multiple types. The solution is customizable and configurable to suit applications in different
sectors there are over 100 APIs northbound and southbound from the platform.
The company's VP of Strategy, Macario Namie, says there is no "generic IoT solution," rather,
everything needs wrapping into a specific vertically oriented solution. Control Center delivers
the service lifecycle part of the solution, which is capable of being made generic. In common
with most IoT platform vendors, Jasper develops its solution in partnership with its users.
There are functions/features that are too specific for Jasper to put them on to its platform
it has declined to do so in the past in some cases. Namie points out that data management
and analytics is too sector specific to be included in a broadly applicable IoT platform. Rather,
vertical-oriented data management platforms can incorporate service lifecycle management,
and Namie cites GE's Predix as an example of a data management and analytics platform
that is integrated with Jasper's platform. Jasper also works with system integrators (it has a
partnership with Accenture and works with many others including Deloitte).
Control Center is delivered exclusively through mobile operators worldwide. Namie says that
while mobile operators have variable record in building solutions, the Jasper platform has
served mobile operators very well, and the arrangement has worked well for Jasper, too:
"Mobile operators have great reach and sales/marketing capabilities. For Jasper, they are a
very good route to market," says Namie. Jasper uses a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model,
taking a percentage of revenues MOs charge for whatever IoT service is enabled by the Jasper platform. Recent customers include major operators in Asia/Pacific, including Reliance in
India and an operator in Thailand.
Control Center differs from some other platforms in being hosted from Jasper's own data
centers (15 of them around the world) rather than on public cloud infrastructure. Namie
says that "many application areas have legal or corporate requirements as to where data
can go e.g., for government or military or big enterprises and public cloud based services
are forbidden." He adds that the company is looking into public cloud delivery, but has no
plans to change the service delivery architecture right now.

6.7

Oracle

Oracle has a very extensive range of solutions that support the commercialization and operation of the IoT. The company's depth of involvement with telecom operators and other

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service providers, and with the enterprises that are the users of many IoT applications and
services, means it is well positioned to understand how IoT will develop and what is needed.
Two business units contribute the most significant relevant products and solutions: Oracle
Communications and Oracle Fusion Middleware. Between them, these units deliver platforms for business operation, network and policy management, and application enablement.
In addition, the Oracle Internet of Things Cloud Service enables asset- and service-intensive
processes within business applications to interact with devices and equipment in the physical world. Oracle partners to deliver industry solutions and enterprise applications.
Figure 4: Oracle's IoT Solutions Overview

Source: Oracle (used with permission)

Oracle Communications products making up the business operations platform include a host
of business support systems developed from those that support communications services in
many operators around the world. Among the most significant solutions is Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM), which is used within other IoT platforms,
as well as Oracle's own. Other components of the Oracle business operations platform include customer, partner and channel management, order management and activation, and
service exposure and delivery. Among the IoT customers for Oracle's business operations
platform are service providers Verizon Telematics, OnStar (General Motors' vehicle telematics and connected car business), Lyse (smart home and utility services), Minacs (IT
outsourcing) and Cisco (uses BRM to underpin charging for its enterprise services).
The company's network and policy management platform includes solutions from its Tekelec
acquisition, including Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF). The platform delivers subscriber data management and Diameter routing, as well as policy management. This
functionality is embedded in Jasper's IoT platform and also used by OnStar and Verizon.
Oracle's application enablement platform includes the Oracle IoT Cloud Service (launched in
October 2015). The company says this service allows organizations to bridge the gap between operational technology (OT) and IT systems, move from manual monitoring and

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reactive controls to more active command and control of the assets/equipment and provide
predictive maintenance, better asset tracking, utilization and improved customer services.
Core features include:

Connect: connecting to devices/sensors directly or indirectly via gateways, device

virtualization, high-speed bi-directional messaging, end-to-end security (with device
lifecycle management and secure communication).

Analyze: analysis of device streams, both in real time, using stream processing
components and big data analysis for event generation, pattern recognition, predictive analytics and business intelligence.

Integrate/Act: integration with a variety of applications and platform-as-a-service

(PaaS) services. The service provides out-of-the-box integration with manufacturing
apps (E-Business Suite and JD Edwards), transportation apps and PaaS services,
such as Integration Cloud Service, Mobile Cloud Service and BI Cloud Service.

Oracle has also developed partnerships to create white-label managed IoT services that can
be rapidly branded and offered by communications service providers. Oracle Communications provides the business and operations management platforms, and Tata Consultancy
Services has developed a range of eight ready-made IoT applications in the areas of connected cars, connected buildings, security and mobile health. Oracle also partners with, and
sells to, other solution builders and service providers (including Minacs, Lyse and Verizon
Telematics) and will also sell platforms directly to enterprises, bringing in service providers
as partners, if required.

6.8

PTC

PTC provides industrial enterprise software, largely to the manufacturing sector. Its portfolio
spans CAD, mathematical computing, technical publishing and application, product and service lifecycle management. The company has become a major IoT player over the last two
years, having spent over $700 million in acquisitions and through organic development.
PTC's CEO, Jim Heppelmann has also contributed to industry debate on the impact of the
IoT on business. Its IoT tech stack, largely built through acquisitions, complements the rest
of its portfolio, as its customers connect more of their products to the Internet. PTC describes this as a move to "smart, connected products." Its IoT solutions have been
successful in the following sectors: manufacturing, agriculture, smart cities, utilities, building management and telematics.
In 2013, PTC acquired ThingWorx, a well-established rapid application development platform
for IoT. It includes the ThingWorx Composer (an application modeling environment), Codeless
Mashup Builder (a drag-and-drop graphical user interface [GUI] for build applications from
components), data storage and SQEAL structured query engine, collaboration platform, an orchestrator for business process management and a data integration framework (or hub). In
2014, the company acquired Axeda, which added device connectivity management (device
cloud), new customers and a way to address new markets for PTC's solutions.
PTC acquired Coldlight in May 2015, boosting the company's capabilities in the data layer of
the IoT technology stack. The Coldlight Neuron predictive analytics solution has been rebranded as ThingWorx Machine Learning. It offers machine-learning-based analysis of
historical data for multiple purposes in the manufacturing context, such as predicting utilization levels, improving factory operations, preventing defects, increasing yields and
improving sales targeting.

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More recently, PTC has acquired the augmented reality specialist Vuforia, and has announced
it is intending to buy Kepware, a software development company that provides communications connectivity to industrial automation environments. These acquisitions, coupled with its
long history lifecycle management for industry, make PTC one of the most interesting companies in the industrial IoT space.
PTC's IoT business is run under the ThingWorx brand, and consists of the capabilities from
these acquisitions. ThingWorx supports multiple connectivity options (including multiple device clouds), and can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud or embedded into other solutions.
PTC points out that it is a large player in the IoT platform market: It has 6,000 employees in
total and has an R&D budget of $100 million. "There are hundreds of companies just providing device cloud," says Russ Fadel, president and GM of PTC's ThingWorx division, ""but our
competitors are those that can offer end-to-end solutions, including application platforms. We
compete with some very large enterprise software players, manufacturing technology specialists and some networking players that are either building their own IoT platform capability or
acquiring it. We compete on the basis of our ability to execute at scale." Fadel adds that
ThingWorx has been growing very fast, adding 500 new customers per year.
PTC sells its platforms both directly to enterprise customers and through partners. References
include enterprises such as Caterpillar and GE (its "Brilliant Factory" concept uses ThingWorx),
IoT app and solution builders such as OnFarm, telcos such as AT&T and Docomo (with five to
six deals more lined up, Fadel says), and cloud infrastructure specialists such as Wind River.
It also works with system integrators such as Accenture, Wipro, HCL and Infosys. More than
400 colleges and universities worldwide also use ThingWorx in the classroom. PTC says the
mission of its academic program is to teach young men and women the language of the IoT.

6.9

Telit

Telit is a U.K.-headquartered multinational manufacturer of cellular, short-range radio,

global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and automotive IoT modules, and IoT connectivity
and platform services. It acquired U.S.-based IoT platform player ILS Technology (established by former IBM staff) in 2013, and rebranded the business as Telit IoT Platforms in
September 2015, retaining the deviceWISE product name as the core of Telit's IoT services
business. Telit is unusual among IoT platform vendors in having a portfolio that stretches
deep into the device end of the value chain while also supporting application enablement
and connectivity and data management.
Telit's core IoT platform and service offers are:

IoT Portal a PaaS solution offering managed connectivity using multiple networks
and device clouds/connected device platforms, connectivity management (including
alarm setting and management dashboards), over-the-air device management functionality, data management, security management and application enablement
(through dashboards and integration with ERP and other enterprise software and
multiple clouds). IoT Portal is built on the deviceWISE Application Enablement
Platform (AEP) that connects devices to apps.

deviceWISE for MNOs the deviceWISE platform licensed to operators, IT outsourcing companies and system integrators. Telit provides customization, integration
services, technical maintenance and support. The customer can brand its own IoT
services based on the platform.

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deviceWISE for Factory an industrial automation platform to connect production

machinery and processes with enterprise applications. Architecture is scalable and
the platform is configurable, using a library of built-in standardized device drivers
and enterprise connectors. It is pre-configured for cloud connectivity. Manufacturing
sectors where deviceWISE for Factory is suitable include automotive, pharmaceuticals, machinery, oil and gas, power generation and water utilities.

Telit's ability to tightly integrate modules, connectivity and device management, as well as
provide an app enablement platform that leverages this integration, delivers tangible benefits
to IoT and M2M users, according to the company's CTO Fred Yentz: "We use industry-standard TR50 MQTT APIs, and an agent installed on all our partner devices that interfaces with our
Asset Gateway to make it much easier to connect devices to the IoT. Our Proxy Gateway can
do the same for legacy devices and avoids adding latency that can otherwise happen." He
adds that Telit's ability to filter data by application means that its infrastructure isn't overwhelmed by consumer app data, increasing the robustness of Telit's industry-focused service.
Figure 5: Telit IoT Portal Functionality

Source: Telit Communications (used with permission)

The company also stresses the number of APIs it has developed to widely deployed enterprise
software and cloud platforms; it provides automatic interfacing to SAP Hana, for instance, and
its IoT platform serves as an on-ramp for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and GE Predix.
Telit sells to enterprises in very many vertical markets, including transportation, agriculture,
retail, healthcare, security/surveillance, food/drink, manufacturing, energy/buildings and
automotive. Reference customers include Cisco, SAP, Mitsubishi and Tennant (a large U.S.based industrial equipment manufacturer), as well as some mobile operators for instance,
it has worked with Proximus in Belgium to enable Smart City applications based on the LoRa
networking standard.

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The company sells either full, end-to-end IoT enablement solutions, including modules and
multiple platform functionality, or solutions on an a la carte basis. Revenue models are
mixed and flexible: modules are charged for as a capex item, then a monthly volume-based
fee for connection is added. The enterprise gateway is a traditional software license approach, and data storage is charged for in the same way as other cloud services. Public or
private clouds can be used depending on customer requirements.

6.10 Xively (LogMeIn)

Xively is a connected product management platform developed by LogMeIn, a provider of
remote connectivity, collaboration and customer engagement services delivered from the
cloud. It enables products to be connected via a message broker to the Internet (providing
RESTful APIs and SDKs for app developers) and allows devices, users and apps to be managed in an efficient way, organizing the data in device models and an object directory. Xively
was created and continues to evolve in response to customer needs for organizing a connected business, integrating with existing business systems and app development support.
Xively is seeing traction in light-industrial or B2B2C applications that support connected products in the home (rather than in factories), in medical devices/healthcare and solar energy.
Products connected via Xively include printers, home electronics equipment, environmental
monitoring sensors and education, scientific and medical research equipment. "Our success
has been based on doing two things very well: connectivity at scale for concurrent messages
and providing structure to connected products and users. That's what is helping build connected products businesses," says Ryan Lester, director of product marketing for Xively.
Xively works with partners throughout the IoT value chain, from chip and module vendors
such as ARM, Qualcomm and Freescale, through cloud stack specialists such as Heroku and
data management companies such as Splunk, to solution builders and enterprise applications, including Salesforce, Mphasis and Global Logic. Lester says that wireless operators
have a legitimate place in the IoT value chain and Xively is in discussion with operators all
the time; it has worked much more with service integrators/solution builders.
Xively is built on the MQTT message bus standard as a way to improve the performance of
data transport from connected products to the platform. The company points out that applications may need to scale from a few thousand up to a few million concurrent messages
while maintaining sub 100ms message time.
A significant development during 2015 involves ID and access management. "Xively simplifies authentication and solves several IoT security issues," says Lester. It can create an
object model for every entity that accesses devices and applications it has templates for
each of these entities and the model contains the permission information, so messages
between the entities can be checked against the model to ensure the necessary permissions
are in place. In October 2015, LogMeIn added Identity Manager to Xively. The company
says this provides an easy-to-implement option for onboarding and managing new IoT end
users; it is applicable to Web and mobile applications.
Xively is moving along the value chain (and up the technology stack) from connectivity
management to application enablement, where it will escape from the commoditization of
connectivity but start to meet different, well-established competitors. Indeed, Lester
acknowledges that modeling a connected business is very important for Xively, adding that
the company is "offering a real out-of-the-box service much more than the frameworks
and concepts that some other enablement platform providers offer."

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7.

CONCLUSIONS

While still in its early stages, vendors are certain that the market for IoT platforms is maturing; enterprises and smaller businesses that are developing IoT applications and services
are recognizing that some of the technology challenges do not have to be solved afresh for
each application, but can be overcome by using appropriate horizontal platforms.
Platforms for device connection have reached the stage where supply is outstripping demand and prices are falling. This is causing those vendors whose platforms are efficient to
begin to add functionality around their initial connectivity offer and to reposition themselves. They have found that some aspects of IoT, such as service lifecycle management,
can be delivered on a platform, though other aspects remain very difficult to deliver effectively on a new cross-sector, horizontal platform. In particular, application development
environments will continue to be those already used by developers, and much data analytics
technology remains the preserve of sector specialists: deep vertical market expertise is
needed before an IoT application can be developed or even properly supported.
Even at a basic level, some vendors Aeris and Xively made the case strongly to us believe there has been a lack of expertise of IoT application developers and also in the
platform market (particularly around the areas of security and scalability), which is leading
to significant hurdles that delay product development and end up costing more than anticipated. Xively's Ryan Lester says: "The key to early success in the IoT will be reducing the
initial development costs and timeline by making easy for companies to connect products
and then mapping those products back to existing business systems."
Platform vendors recognize the role that telecom operators play in IoT: they can readily
provide national and in some cases international connectivity, and it is relatively straightforward to extend this offer to device and connectivity management (even if this requires
partnerships with other operators). Their experience with IT platforms stands them in good
stead as providers of other support to IoT app developers and business users. In particular,
as IoT reaches across more and more areas of commercial activity, the way that telecom
companies resolved interoperability and standards issues may serve as a model for IoT.
Platform providers are also identifying the significance of industrial IoT as a sector with potential for direct sales, and many players in the space are beginning to form partnerships
and put together ecosystems in order to attack this market better. We expect this to be a
strong feature of the IoT platform space throughout 2016 and 2017.

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Heavy Reading was advised of the possibility of the same. The purchaser agrees that the liability of
Heavy Reading, its employees, affiliates, agents and licensors, if any, arising out of any kind of legal
claim (whether in contract, tort or otherwise) in connection with its goods/services under this Agreement shall not exceed the amount the purchaser paid to Heavy Reading for use of this report.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION
This License will be governed by the laws of the State of New York. In case of a dispute arising under
or related to this License, the parties agree to binding arbitration before a single arbitrator in the New
York City office of the American Arbitration Association. The prevailing party will be entitled to recover
its reasonable attorney fees and costs.
Heavy Reading
P.O. Box 1953
New York, NY 10156
Phone: +1 212-600-3000
www.heavyreading.com

HEAVY READING | JANUARY 2016 | IOT PLATFORMS: CHASING VALUE IN A MATURING MARKET

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