On Target: Embedded Systems

PubNub Taps IoT Niche with Real Time Data Streams

The tremendous growth potential of the IoT has created a market battle between many large, well-known companies such as Amazon, Cisco, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle. But how do smaller companies and startups become competitive in the race for IoT success? One answer: create or exploit a niche within the IoT. PubNub is a notable entrant in this respect. Streaming of real time data is useful in a variety of IoT applications, including finance, weather, traffic, communication, E-commerce, security, systems control, home and vehicle automation, advertising, and gaming. Since PubNub's founding in 2009, the company has firmly established itself in... Read more →

Microsoft Setting Precedents in Data Sovereignty and Residency

Microsoft recently announced that the company will open two datacenters in Canada, to provide its Azure cloud service to the Canadian Government and businesses operating in that country. Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, said “this substantial investment in a Canadian cloud demonstrates how committed we are to bringing even more opportunity to Canadian businesses and government organizations, helping them fully realize the cost savings and flexibility of the cloud.” (To read the full press release from Microsoft, see here.) In an article in Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper about the announcement, Janet Kennedy, president of Microsoft Canada, said, “there... Read more →

Privacy and Security Trends in IoT – Parsing the FTC’s Guidance

Privacy and security are both huge concerns for consumers and businesses alike in the evolving IoT landscape. Privacy is the unauthorized use of data by an entity that has been granted access to a dataset. Thus it is generally privacy that forms the relationship between companies and customers, and any breach of this contract is a privacy concern. Security, on the other hand, is the unauthorized use and or/access of data by an entity that has not been granted access to some dataset; e.g. hacking and external security breaches. Both privacy and security goals will be hard to reconcile with... Read more →

Samsung Invests in Sigfox. Is the Race Over for Long-Range Low-Power Wireless Competitors?

A preliminary market battle has been brewing over the past year between technologies to connect IoT devices via wireless wide area networks. These cellular-type networks allow very low power battery devices to transmit small amounts of data over several miles, a solution highly suitable to many types of IoT devices such weather sensors and smart meters. Entrants in this market include Sigfox, LoRa, and Neul. (In addition, standards organization IEEE is developing the 802.11ah wireless networking protocol for distances up to a kilometer.) Sigfox announced on June 15 that Samsung’s Artik IoT platform would integrate Sigfox support. Also, noted in... Read more →

IoT Application Platforms – What Company Will Take the Next Bite?

Few areas of technology or business can match the current levels of interest and anticipation surrounding the internet of things (IoT). Embedded engineering organizations and enterprises alike are struggling to keep pace with the expected rate of IoT change. They are rapidly modifying their business plans to pursue new service revenue opportunities enabled by the IoT. But challenges from tighter time-to-market windows and project requirements that extend far beyond existing internal skill sets is yet again recasting the traditional software build-versus-buy calculation. More organizations now recognize the need for new third-party development and management platforms to help them jumpstart IoT... Read more →

Under Pressure: Your Embedded System Needs to Modernize Requirements Management (RM)

Recording of This Webinar from VDC Research and Jama Software is Now Available New variables continue to emerge, making software development in both the embedded/systems and enterprise/IT domains more complex – and in many ways, more similar. For instance, the requirement to design software in accordance with regulatory mandates, which is increasingly common in the embedded industries, now also extends into several segments of the enterprise, such as banking. Likewise, the Cloud and IoT are becoming more of a focal point for technology and innovation in both realms. This is driving an explosion in new software-focused business plans, devices, categories,... Read more →

Where To Next For PTC After ColdLight Analytics Acquisition?

At this month’s LiveWorx event put on by PTC (formerly known as Parametric Technology Corp.), the news highlight was the company’s acquisition of IoT analytics firm ColdLight. (See press release here.) ColdLight’s Neuron software for cloud or on-premise datacenters applies machine learning technology to M2M and IoT data, automating predictive analytics tasks. The ColdLight acquisition was a logical extension to PTC’s prior acquisition of ThingWorx and Axeda in the IoT space. At the front end of the product development process, PTC has assembled software offerings for product lifecycle management (Windchill), computer-aided design (Creo), application lifecycle management and systems engineering (Integrity).... Read more →

India Takes Giant Steps Toward Smart Cities

With many benefits of IoT becoming apparent, more countries are implementing smart city reforms. This year, India has been the most ambitious in its IoT plans with an allocated budget of Rs. 7060 crores ($1.6 billion USD). Prior to his May 2014 election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to transform 100 regions of India into smart cities by 2022. As India’s economy continues to rapidly increase with 60% of India’s GDP coming from urban jobs, Modi hopes that the development of new cities will accommodate for the rapid urbanization. By creating satellite cities and improving existing cities, India hopes to... Read more →

RSA Security Conference 2015: Data from Things, and Data about Things

At recent trade shows such as CES and Embedded World, attendees couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a sign reading “Internet of Things.” But at this week’s RSA Conference for the cybersecurity industry at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, the focus was squarely on security for conventional IT and cloud computing systems, with IoT-centric offerings sparse. That’s not to say IoT was missing, but rather that it’s presence was relatively low key, which is perhaps a good thing after the past year’s worth of hype. Besides, many system implementations that could be considered IoT are extensions of conventional IT. And... Read more →

IBM’s $3 Billion Stake into IoT: A Low-Risk Gamble

IBM has announced it is establishing a new Internet of Things business unit with more than 2,000 consultants, researchers, and developers, and will invest $3 billion in it over the next four years. Three business areas are being highlighted: IoT Open Cloud Platform for Industries – vertical market oriented big data analytics services Bluemix IoT Zone – expansion of IBM’s platform-as-a-service to improve development and deployment of IoT apps IoT Ecosystem – additional partners for secure integration of IoT data and services (existing partners include AT&T and ARM) (We won’t rehash all the details of the announcement, which you can... Read more →