VDC Research: Embedded Microprocessor, Board & Systems Market Blog

Extracting Elusive Value from the Embedded Cloud – A Consumer Perspective – Part 2

As we continue this blog series looking at the embedded cloud, I thought I would look at a few more typical household/consumer activities as a place where M2M could deliver value to many stakeholders. In this part 2 we look to food storage and preparation.

 

Food Storage: As food costs rise, there are many ways expenses can be cut with respect to food that is wasted due to spoilage after purchase. In many supermarkets, loyalty cards allow stores to track purchases in exchange for automatic discounts and other benefits. Some stores allow customers to use hand held scanners or even their own HMIs to scan items in the store. Items such as produce can be weighed and a bar-code label that represents the product is printed to be scanned.  If the store can track all this, there can be a system that would allow for this information to be used by the consumer too. In this way, methods could be developed where the consumer’s home inventory of products could be tracked. When an item is used, they would scan the empty container barcode with their HMI and it would be deducted from their inventory. This system could be further augmented if expiration dates were bar-coded. To initiate the integrated M2M inventory system, the consumer needs to go through their residence and scan the items they already own, enter the expiration dates, and purge the expired items as necessary. Appliances might eventually have M2M scanning and measurement features that make this process more automated and precise. 

Food Preparation/Cooking: This is where things come together literally and with respect to the M2M process. It could start where consumers scan all of the cookbooks they own. These would be augmented with the huge variety of recipes available on the web. Then, the process would look to the inventory of products in the home particularly emphasizing the ones that should be used sooner. How much time is available to cook and eat the meal? What is the capability of the person doing the cooking and the available appliances?  Are there dietary concerns? How many servings are needed and, perhaps most importantly, what do the people want to eat? Processing power from the Embedded Cloud could be leveraged to find an optimal set of menu options. Need to buy a few more things to complete the menu? A connected system could allow nearby suppliers to make offers – and even deliver them! Need instructions? Sponsored media sites could allow video/audio clips on the mobile device to provide the needed help. Perhaps the ideal recipe is in a cookbook you own; the system could tell you which book/page has the recipe it. This type of system would work well for a single meal planned on the spot but it could also be ideally suited for those that plan ahead. In this way, a weekly shopping list could be assembled.

A few last thoughts:

• Based on the cloud data, local restaurants can determine menus that might attract more customers.
• Automatically linking home food inventory through the cloud to store delivery services would be a logical next step.
• Booksellers can encourage more cookbook sales in competition with the recipes available for free on the web.

Extracting Elusive Value from the Embedded Cloud – A Consumer Perspective – Part 1

As part of a series supporting the recently published M2M/ Embedded Cloud reports, I explored a few M2M benefits for the industrial machine markets and wind power industry. As I extend this blog series, I wanted to look at a few ways that Machine to Machine M2M connectivity can provide many benefits to consumers in their everyday life and, as a result can provide more revenue opportunities to the businesses that embrace this new age of embedded cloud M2M connectivity.

A Rich Environment for M2M Connectivity: 

Appliances: These days most appliances have, at the very least embedded processors. As I mentioned in a previous blog from the ESC/Design West show, suppliers such as Inside Secure, Lantronix, Silex, and Texas Instruments and others give appliance manufacturers many options to have their products connect to networks and mobile devices.  These M2M features could act as a driver for new product sales but, also a method of increasing service revenue from field upgrades.

Mobile Devices: Most consumers or, at a minimum, at least one person in a household have very capable mobile products that can be used as Human Machine Interfaces (HMI).  Therefore, many appliances could have the capabilities of a dedicated full featured panel and keyboard interface without having the expense of adding that hardware.

As part of this blog series, I thought I would look at a few typical household/consumer activities as a place where M2M could deliver value to many stakeholders. In part 1, we look to laundry and a trip to the supermarket.  In part 2 we look to food storage and preparation.

Laundry a “Clean” Opportunity for M2M:

Smart Grid: In a residence that has a smart meter, the power used can be measured with respect to time with lower rates for off peak usage. Laundry is a task that usually has some flexibility in when it can be done. Using their mobile HMI, a person could program the washer/dryer to run during an optimal time period for lower power costs. In a full M2M configuration, communication between the laundry appliances and the grid operator through the cloud or directly to the smart meter could add the needed timing and precision.

Commercial/Facility: For those where in-residence laundry machines are not an option, M2M could provide benefits as HMIs could allow consumers to reserve Laundromat machines in advance or at least know machine were availability before in advance.  The mobile devices and M2M could provide other benefits like cashless transactions, locking the machines to prevent theft/tampering, and alerting the user that a load is complete.

A Trip to the Store with M2M:

Setting the Route: Let’s consider a consumer that has a shopping list that takes into account some food and other things they are planning to buy. The nearby supermarket specials have been downloaded onto their mobile device and an application coupled with an embedded GPS can provide the consumer with a cost effective and efficient plan to buy what they need at the best prices.  The consumer’s HMI also might have information about traffic and or what might be the best times to go to the store to avoid crowding and long lines. The consumer’s HMI could possibly help them find item locations in the store with the assistance of a store provided application.  All together, this  allows the consumer to spend less time shopping, get the needed items for the best price, and save gas/travel expenses.

Other Possible M2M Benefits:

• The supermarkets can level the peak demand for personnel and connect the customer to their goods to a degree never before possible.
• Printed supermarket fliers are expensive to produce and distribute and, they likely have to be planned far in advance in anticipation of items being available. M2M can make the system much more responsive if prime produce, meats or seafood are suddenly available or, unexpectedly not available.
• Consumers can avoid situations where the store they select is out of stock on an item that they need.
• Produce is an “experience good” in that sometimes you have to buy it and try it to see if it is really good. An application that would allow consumers to rate a particular batch of product would be really valuable to store owners as well as fellow customers. A store application could look at situations where customers buy a small amount of a product one day and return the next day and buy a lot more. This repeat buy index would be representative of a really good lot of produce.
• As the consumer is on the route to the store, their HMI might give them offers. Say for example their car has M2M and it needs an oil change and the supplier en-route has an open service bay waiting. That would be a win from many perspectives.

Summary: I see an environment where embedded cloud/M2M connectivity will be increasingly added to things like appliances, and automobiles. Using mobile devices, and automotive infotainment systems as HMI, many benefits can be seen by the consumers, manufacturers, grid operators, retail store and supermarket owners as well as other service providers. In many cases, these applications and the values created are real or easily achievable in the 2012/2013 timeframe. This is the recipe for success. Speaking of recipes, if you liked this blog, the next one will look at food products and how M2M and the Embedded Cloud can provide value with respect to the food products people buy and often throw out later.

Extracting Elusive Value from the Embedded Cloud

In the past few months as work progressed on the VDC Embedded Cloud report, I posted a few blogs on classic examples of M2M connectivity and the values that can be obtained by many stakeholders. Even so, I believe many M2M cases do not fully extract all of the value that can be obtained by that connectivity and, in particular, the data that is collected, processed, and stored in the cloud. In this blog, I thought I would explore in more detail two examples of M2M connectivity to look for that elusive added value.

M2M Example 1: Semiconductor Tester - The latest versions of Advanced Mixed Signal/System on Chip testers have to perform faster than the chips they are testing and are likely using liquid cooling systems. The timing of the digital channels have to be perfect and, at the same time, precise analog sourcing and capture channels are needed for the many analog functions found on the system on chip devices they are testing. These testers are typically on isolated networks as device speeds, capabilities, and product yields are highly confidential particularly during product development. These testers are typically used 24 x 7 and downtime is particularly expensive.

If that semiconductor tester could be connected to the suppliers cloud service, significant value can be seen by all participants especially the owner. The cooling system would be a prime example. In many cases these are closed loop systems and a low level of flow or coolant and/or a high temperature reading can shut the system down automatically. If these sensors could be polled and the data stored and processed, the system owner or supplier could be alerted to possible problems before they cause a shutdown. Small coolant leaks could be detected and mitigated before they cause issues. If the data were made available to coolant suppliers, they could proactively deliver new stock on a just-in-time basis.

Semiconductor testers can generate a lot of data in the process of calibrating and testing themselves. If that self-test and/or calibration data were moved to the cloud it could provide more value by using processes that compare past results with current ones. Even tests that pass in both cases can be statistically evaluated to look for drifting toward limits. In this way, a digital or analog channel boards could be removed before they failed in the middle of a production run.

Now, we will take it up one more notch. If the self-test data from all of the tester supplier’s customers were aggregated in the cloud they could provide even more value particularly in cases where failures occur. By comparing the data from a current failure with those that happened in the past, it is likely that a root cause is already known and therefore can be quickly applied by the service personnel.

If you think that this is all the value that can be extracted from this case of M2M, you would be mistaken. If the semiconductor tester could sense that another machine in the test cell was down, it could run its own self-test programs to take advantage of the lull in the action. If a time based calibration was needed in the near future, it could pull that in as well. In the failure cases noted above, the cloud based data could be used in a Failure Reporting and Corrective Actions System (FRACAS) which might identify problems with a particular component or batch of components. This type of data could be filtered and shared and the benefits would be seen by multiple OEMs as well as component suppliers.

M2M Example 2: Wind Turbine - In some cases, wind turbines are individual units and, in other cases, they are part of a large array of units. This can represent a very fragmented deployment as large arrays are likely in remote areas and single units are very spread out in more populated areas. This makes the service model a lot more complicated both in regards to equipment and personnel. From a personnel perspective, you need expertise in electrical, mechanical, and aeronautical systems. The fact that they are so large and high also requires crane and rigging and heavy construction expertise as well.  If the array is located offshore, that is another area of expertise that might be needed. From what I know, wind turbines don’t fail that often but, when they do, the convergence of material and expertise needed to fix them can be costly with respect to downtime and expenses.

M2M connectivity could benefit wind turbine installations by providing them with advance knowledge of wind gusts and anomalies for which they could adjust in advance. There are lots of sources for this kind of data from satellites, radar, and sensors located in many places. Aggregated and processed in the cloud, they could provide actionable intelligence for a turbine operator. On a similar note, this type of aggregated data is of high value to grid operators as they need to level out the supply of wind-generated electricity with the demand of the customers.

As in the semiconductor tester, I believe there are several ways the service model I discussed could be made less expensive. A wind turbine is likely chock full of sensors that detect motion, position, and most importantly strain on components. The rotating blades are very heavy but need to be balanced and oriented precisely. If the data from the turbines are moved to the cloud, degradation of components could be detected before outright failure.

Now, we look to a higher derivative value of the aggregated wind turbine data. If a wind turbine blade begins to have a problem and the sensors detect it, the owner has a tough choice to make because of the logistics and expenses that could be involved in the repair process. If the owner, crane company, and/or repair crew, knew there were other wind turbines in that area that also had problems, costs could be shared. 

In the final embedded cloud M2M value derivative, the supplier of the wind turbine blades could use the aggregated data from all of the deployed turbines to learn more about strains and product failures to improve designs and production processes. If needed, they could begin to produce a replacement part on proactive just-in-time basis rather than having to maintain a significant inventory.

Summary: In both the tester and turbine cases we see where the primary stakeholders such as the equipment owner and the supplier that made it have tangible benefits from the M2M cloud connectivity. The interesting but sometimes less obvious benefits come from other data sources and where the equipment data can be used to provide benefits to other stakeholders. In each market, these secondary and somewhat elusive opportunities are there for the taking but only to those who look for them.

Four Big Takeaways from the Design West / ESC Show

In this last ESC show related blog, I will summarize several of the discoveries and themes we saw for embedded hardware products. We had lots of great conversations and observed many product demonstrations and presentations. These four takeaways were some of the most interesting.

Disposable Products: Embedded device manufacturers are looking to provide units that minimize power use when operating and virtually eliminate any use when idle. What is driving this is the idea of products like smoke and/or CO detectors lasting for 10 years or more and then being disposable. This allows the units to use different power sources while eliminating battery clips, and simplifying enclosure designs.  If you take it a next step, you could see that some municipalities could ensure that every residence and business would have smoke/CO detector units installed and operational. This would save lives and money.

Microcontrollers (MCU) and Digital Signal Processors (DSP): Embedded computing has gotten a lot more complicated and one place that is representative of this trend is automotive airbag systems. In prior generation designs it was relatively simple in that a MEMs device or some type of impact sensor was connected to an MCU that would in turn trigger the airbag if a well defined set of go/no-go conditions were met. There were several problems that now make this architecture less feasible. Airbags are expensive to replace and, in some cases present dangers of their own. Therefore, you want to be a little more selective about when you want to deploy them. Cars now have multiple airbags and you only want to deploy some of them depending on conditions that might not be a simple MCU driven process. In summary, the airbag trigger process involves more sensors to detect passenger configurations and weights as well as impact sites, directions, magnitudes and whether the vehicle is rolling over. This is why VDC believes that the demand for DSPs in the automotive vertical market will be growing significantly.

Embedded Device Pin counts and Features: During the ESC show we spoke with many embedded controller and processor suppliers and were impressed with the amount of features and capabilities that are increasingly being integrated into these products. By doing so, in many cases it reduces the need for pins that would be needed to connect the device to other devices in a customer’s product. To the embedded device manufacturer this has many possible benefits as it frees up the pins for other functions or eliminates them completely.  Another tangible benefit would be reduced cost of test as the reduced pin count might enable more parallel testing. The design engineers at the customer have to be delighted as they have fewer worries about integrating peripherals and supporting devices and now, less demand for space inside the products they are designing. This is truly a win-win proposition.

Embedded Cloud / Microstrain: In their booth, the CEO Steve Arms was demonstrating their Sensor Cloud service. The demonstration was showing real time and archived data collected wirelessly from an array of sensors at a Vermont winery. This is a classic embedded cloud business model of a company setting up cloud services for customers. Agriculture is always a complicated business and the introduction of this type of service should help lower costs to farmers. Now, imagine a second derivative of the cloud data being aggregated and sold to the financial industry to support decisions about crop futures.

In a blog later this week, I will give some thoughts on the embedded cloud business model and the layers of value that can be extracted.

Is Embedded Hardware Even Safe from Anonymous?

The recent hacking of security firm Stratfor’s website as well as Specialforces.com by hacker group Anonymous has led to questions of how secure large firms are against data theft. One can logically extend the question to the embedded world as well. A prime example in the embedded context is the Stuxnet worm that set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions. As the number of connected devices increases exponentially, the quality of security incorporated into them can only become more paramount. With groups like Anonymous quick to exploit weaknesses, it will likely be a continuous quest to avoid embarrassing security failures at the embedded level.

The needs for this security are evident on many levels. On one hand, as embedded devices are increasingly connected, there are all manners of confidential data that may begin to pass through these embedded systems. For instance, as hospitals begin to incorporate more embedded technology, will patient records become increasingly vulnerable to hacking? Undoubtedly yes. On the other hand, there is the issue of intellectual property in the embedded device itself.  An example is the on-chip memory in a processor which holds valuable code and possibly important data. Both the confidential data packets and the processor IP will require innovative security in the coming years. 

So, what is the embedded industry doing about it? While power, price, and performance have been the classical drivers in the embedded market, there is no doubt that embedded designers are beginning to take security very seriously. The areas of virtualization, encryption, deep packet inspection, etc. are all technical areas that offer potential solutions to security concerns.  As an example, embedded processor supplier Intel’s McAfee division has developed a technology called DeepSAFE, that functions beneath the operating system to protect against stealth rootkits and ATPs.  This kind of technology offers a new level of protection for embedded hardware.  In all likelihood however, as we move into 2012, new technologies will offer new weaknesses for hackers to exploit and for embedded security to defend against such attacks.

5 Keys to Winning and Holding Embedded Computer Share in the Semiconductor Test Market

With respect to Embedded Integrated Computer Systems (EICSs) the semiconductor test market has some unique attributes that may not be immediately obvious or logical to outsiders. The recent VDC report on EICSs used in the industrial automation market estimated 2010 revenues of ~$210 Million for semiconductor processing making it an attractive market to enter. Embedded computing suppliers that thrive here are likely to follow these 5 key rules.

Make it small: Floor space is at a premium in wafer fabrication/semiconductor test facilities. These facilities are often very carefully controlled for dust, static, electrical interference, vibration, temperature, and humidity and therefore represent some of the most expensive square footage in the industrial automation market with respect to operating costs. Computers that can be embedded inside or flexibly mounted to take advantage of available niches in test cells and or test equipment are well received.

Make it Fast: Reducing test times for a given device by even a few milliseconds or having the ability to test many devices in parallel are keys to winning the tester sale. EICSs in addition to deeply embedded Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are often used in high quantity to achieve this goal. It is important to remember that a semiconductor tester has to be faster than the state of the art devices it is testing. In this blog, I am focusing on EICSs but many of the 5 keys are applicable to deeply embedded computing components as well.

Make it easy/fast to service: Semiconductor testers are extremely expensive with it being quite easy for a well configured unit to cost several million dollars. Even so, the return on investment can be made in only a few weeks to the owner. Therefore, any downtime is very visible and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) is expected to be in minutes, not hours. Suppliers should design EICSs to have very high reliability but also with easy to access mounts, enclosures, and internal components that allow them to be serviced while wearing a clean room suit and gloves.

Make a flexible configuration: The EICS that is required for a semiconductor tester varies depending on the role it is asked to perform. A production tester needs only a simple Human Machine Interface (HMI) but one that is used for test program development and debugging will need more memory depth and graphics capability to allow the engineer to see and manipulate test patterns as well as analyze the data that is captured while tests are run.

Make it exactly the same – for a long time: A semiconductor test platform will usually be actively sold for at least 5 years but often needs to be supported for at least 10 years and sometimes even longer. Once a tester platform is discontinued a market can develop for the used ones and, in some cases for them can be equal to or even exceeding their original factory price. This can happen when the demand for some legacy semiconductor devices becomes higher than expected. Once a test program has been written and specialized probe cards for wafers and/or interface boards for packaged device handlers have been designed it is extremely expensive process to move them to another tester platform.

Throughout the entire tester platform lifecycle, any changes in embedded computers can require that thousands of hours be spent to re-certify test programs and debug them if problems are seen. Faster computers will often be problematic if, for example, the programmer did not have enough settling time after an instrument was set up before making the measurement.
Changes to an EICS can also lead to increased inventory costs. Because of the MTTR concerns discussed earlier, caches of spare parts are stocked in globally dispersed warehouses and even right at customer sites to allow instant or very quick availability should a failure occur. Changes to an EICS can require multiple sets of slightly different inventory to be stocked.

In summary, a key to winning an embedded hardware product sale to a semiconductor tester company is being active in the design phase and then executing a commitment to provide a stable product through the entire tester product lifecycle. The surprise can be that a newer, faster, or cheaper EICS product will typically not unseat the incumbent unless the original supplier falters in one of the 5 key areas.

Chips Down in Mobile, Intel Ups the Ante in 2012 with its Medfield Platform

A stamp of approval from MIT’s Technology Review, the world’s oldest technology magazine, suggests smartphones based on Intel’s Medfield CPU may give us even more to celebrate in early 2012.  Having struggled for years to enter a mobile space dominated by ARM-based CPUs, Intel’s recent release of prototype reference designs, for Medfield-based smartphones and tablets, may lift the hopes of a market previously skeptical of x86-based smartphones / tablets.  According to Technology Review, Intel’s system-on-a-chip (SoC) Medfield CPU has enabled “a chip that can match and even surpass established mobile chips.”  

Intel’s Strong Push in Mobile 

Strategic investments by Intel in research, development, and production technologies have enabled Intel to achieve significant power savings with Medfield CPU – a relative weak point for Intel’s x86 CPUs – while preserving the strong processing capabilities upon which Intel has built a name.  The smartphone reference design demonstrates the effectiveness of Intel’s combination of the Medfield CPU with a PowerVR GPU (GMA 3600), with an eight megapixel camera able to capture 10 full-size images at a rate of 15 per second in “burst mode.”  The imaging and image processing capabilities enabled by the CPU are a big step ahead for Intel, which has struggled to match the advanced graphics of competitors NVIDIA and AMD. 

However, beyond competing with the power-efficiency and cost-savings enabled by ARM-based CPUs, Intel must also assure that its x86-based devices are supported by a strong software ecosystem.  A mobile device with an Intel CPU would be useless without a range of operating systems designed to take advantage of the unique strengths of Intel’s x86 hardware, and the support of developers ready to create software for these products.   Through acquisitions, partnerships and investments, Intel has developed a more robust software ecosystem to compete in the mobile environment – most notably through its 2009 acquisition of Wind River and its recent partnership with Google to optimize Android for x86 devices.

2012: Intel versus ARM

While Intel’s circulation of these prototype designs represents a significant milestone for a company that has struggled to prove its potential in mobile, Intel has a long road ahead before companies such as Qualcomm, Marvell, and Samsung will see it as a threat.  The companies’ substantial infrastructure, including strong supplier relationships, worldwide distribution networks, advanced manufacturing facilities, and financial capital comprise a solid base for this multi-billion dollar company.  Initial reports regarding Intel’s Medfield prototype alleviate many concerns VDC has expressed regarding Intel’s success in mobile markets.

However, even Intel’s substantial base of resources cannot compensate for the significant advantage ARM maintains with a more highly-developed mobile software ecosystem.  OEMs and developers have invested significant time and money into these ARM-based devices, and may thus prove reluctant to abandon this architecture.  Intel’s work with Google to optimize Android for x86 and investment in programs such as AppUp (a fund financing applications and content development) cannot completely compensate for the porting challenges developers may face in switching to any new system architecture. 

More than anything, this news regarding Intel’s Medfield prototype represents a strong signal to mobile contenders of Intel’s determination to compete in mobile markets.  VDC believes we will see a rocky and drawn-out adoption process for Medfield phones, but these advances by Intel will serve as a strong fuel for competition amongst mobile processor manufacturers.  Competition in any market is generally good for consumers, as it attracts either innovation or pressure to lower prices.  We see this as a long-term play for Intel, building the foundation for further growth in mobile markets and setting the stage for Intel’s future.

 

MILCOM 2011: GE Intelligent Platforms and Juniper Announce Collaboration to Develop Family of Network Routing and Security Appliances

On November 7, GE Intelligent Platforms and Juniper Networks announced at MILCOM 2011 (November 7-10, Baltimore, Maryland) that the two companies will collaborate to develop a family of rugged, highly secure routing and network security appliances designed for military/aerospace deployment in harsh environments where security of data is a mission critical requirement.  The resulting solutions will be sold by GE Intelligent Platforms.

This new family of GE products responds to the adoption by military forces around the world of a network-centric approach to battlefield operations and systems design, according to both companies. With this solution, converged data, voice and video are carried over an IP-based network, and routers form the core of such a network. Cybersecurity also represents a significant concern, as well, as the coexistence of allied forces through multi-national battlefield engagements underscore potential language barriers and security concerns. This results in a requirement for purpose-built rugged routers with advanced security capabilities since commercially-available routers are not designed for harsh environments encountered in most military combat situations.

The RTR8GE, the first product to be announced, is a battle-ready, rugged, and security-focused network router, featuring Juniper's Junos operating system. Its firewall, intrusion prevention and detection, and quality of service capabilities enable secure IPv4/IPv6 connectivity for military vehicles, aircraft and forward operating bases supporting net-centric operations. The RTR8GE is designed to have eight Gigabit Ethernet ports integrated in a SWaP-optimized enclosure that meets the demanding environmental requirements of military and aerospace applications.

The RTR8GE router also supports radio-aware router protocols that monitor network efficiency, available bandwidth and regulate traffic flow, choosing the most efficient network route in mobile, ad-hoc battlefield network environments. It also includes anti-tamper protection and information-assurance technologies in recognition of the sensitive nature of the data it is designed to transport.

For the remainder of this decade, improved routing performance, for traffic load balancing, for countering radio channel performance disturbance and for inter-domain routing in the heterogeneous networking environment will grow in importance.  VDC believes collaborative technology agreements such as this between GE and Juniper represent a best-of-breed approach to network-based embedded design and development projects, for any number of real-world applications, including military and defense.  

By bringing together Juniper's network technology and its Junos operating systems for mission-critical, rugged, and net-centric military applications, GE Intelligent Platforms will be better positioned to participate in programs where C4ISR/electronic warfare interoperability specifications are an integral component of the ultimate solution. However, VDC also believes even with the obvious technical benefits of a GE-Juniper combined communications platform, U.S. military expenditures on advanced net-centric technology will be rationalized - just as virtually every Department of Defense program receives extensive reviews in 2012.  Adjustments in U.S. military strategy and global posture are likely, and could result in large budget savings that could contribute to deficit reduction, a key priority for the current administration.

ESC Boston is Coming Soon - Schedule Time to Meet with VDC

The Embedded Systems Conference will be held this month (September 26^th-29^th) at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

VDC will be attending the conference once again this year and will be presenting our 7th annual Embeddy Awards for Best in Show live at the conference. The winners will be announced live ahead of Wednesday's morning keynote session.

So how can your company win the Embeddy award?

To be considered, you must schedule a meeting with VDC to discuss the announcement that you are making at the show. You can arrange a meeting time with VDC by doing one of the following:

Contact Stephen Balacco, Director, Embedded Software & Tools Practice, VDC Research Group by contacting Stephen at: sbalacco@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x 124.

Still need to register?

Online registration is still open and you can always register in person at the show as well.

We are looking forward to another great show.  See you all in Boston!

Business Models: Motorola Solutions Extends into Managed Services

Seeking to unlock shareholder value through the creation of two stand-alone public companies, in January 2011, Motorola formally separated into two distinct businesses - Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. and Motorola Solutions, which is the $8 Billion organization that designs, manufactures, sells, installs and services analog and digital two-way radios, wireless LAN and security products, voice and data communications products and systems primarily for private networks, wireless broadband systems and end-to-end enterprise mobility solutions.

Recognizing that public safety, government, and enterprise customer requirements have evolved in recent years, so too has Motorola Solutions, and its Global Services unit's business model.  On July 14, 2011 Motorola's $2 Billion (annualized) services division announced the formal expansion of its current services portfolio to offer on a worldwide basis services and solutions designed to (a) further enable Motorola Solutions' 25,000 channel partners by expanding into higher-margin managed services, and (b) by identifying new services opportunities at each stage of the technology lifecycle.

With this formal announcement, Motorola Solutions' Global Services lifecycle approach now includes a more comprehensive blend of services - from traditional break-fix product support to managed instrastructure and devices, to advanced video security, as outlined in the table below:

 
Source: Motorola Solutions

Today, VDC sees the evolution of Motorola Solutions and its 6,100 Global Services professionals as representing a cohesive entity with the capacity to deliver highly-reliable, mission-critical solutions on a worldwide scale. However, in managing its delivery operations both directly with its largest customers and through a large partner network for mid-tier customers, the execution challenge becomes ensuring service delivery is consistent across regions, across customers types, and across customer classes (e.g., local government, national government, large enterprise, etc.).