On Target: Embedded Systems

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 →

VDC Research is attending Embedded World 2015!

Contact us ASAP to schedule a meeting VDC will be making the trip across the Atlantic again this year to visit the largest embedded technology tradeshow of the year, Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany. Last year, the conference boasted 26,700 visitors and 856 exhibiting companies!. While we are at the conference, we welcome the opportunity to meet with attending vendors to learn more about their embedded solutions and any show-related (or other recent) announcements. You can arrange a meeting time with VDC by contacting us directly. For meetings contact: André Girard, Senior Analyst, IoT & Embedded Technology, [email protected], 508.653.9000 x153;... Read more →

Where's The Action On Security Concerns?

Recognition of Software Security Issues Are High; Mitigation is Not I read an interesting report from Spiceworks recently about mobile security actions by IT departments...or perhaps, lack of actions might be more accurate. The report, which is free to download, shows that nearly all IT professionals are worried about security risks affecting mobile devices supported by their company. However, this level of concern vastly outweighs the level of action their organizations have actually taken to lessen security threats. This central finding, while disappointing, does not come as a surprise. Year after year, we see a persistent gap between awareness of... Read more →

How Significant is ARM’s mbed OS?

For microcontrollers (MCUs) used in embedded devices, intellectual property supplier ARM is the clear market leader. In a recent forecast for VDC Research’s report “The Global Market for Embedded Processors,” ARM-based MCUs accounted for more than half of the unit shipments using non-proprietary architectures in 2013 (see chart). The Cortex-M series is the main line of ARM MCUs, and is the most prevalent architecture used in embedded devices for the IoT. So when ARM announced on October 1 at the TechCon convention and trade show that the company would provide a free operating system—the mbed OS—for the M-series, it created... Read more →

IoT Lessons from the Russian CyberVor Hacking

Widely reported during the first week of August was the revelation that a group of Russian hackers known as CyberVor had amassed a database of 1.2 billion usernames and passwords, as well as more than 500 million email addresses. The New York Times originally broke the story, based on findings from the firm Hold Security. Unlike the Target retail data breach of late 2013 and the more recent eBay breach, CyberVor’s loot is not the result of one or two large breaches, but rather a large number of breaches of all sizes. Hold Security says that the data came from... Read more →

VDC Research is attending Agile2014 in Orlando July 28-29

We are attending the Agile2014 conference in Orlando Agile2014 is organized by the Agile Alliance, and it is intended to promote the principles of Agile and serve as an opportunity for all of the foremost experts and innovators in the field to come together. The conference boasts over 240 talks and workshops across 16 program tracks and over 1,800 attendees. For more information about Agile2014 and to register for the event, click here. Make sure to attend the Industry Analyst Panel Discussion: Agile Trends and Future Directions on Tuesday, June 29 to see VDC’s Chris Rommel speak on the panel.... Read more →

VDC Research is Attending IBM Innovate2014 in Orlando

VDC Research will be attending Innovate2014, IBM’s Technical Summit in Orlando, June 1-3, 2014. IBM has planned an exciting agenda for the conference highlighting continuous engineering, DevOps, and Innovation. We are also pleased to announce Chris Rommel, Executive Vice President of M2M Embedded Technology is a speaker for an important panel discussion, “Best Practices for Agile Product Development”, to be held Monday, June 2. We encourage you to attend. Best Practices for Agile Product Development discussion overview: Agile methods are popular and effective in software development for complex products. But, the application of agile principles to the broader product development... Read more →

Outsourced Code Development Driving Automated Test Tool Market

The M2M embedded software team here at VDC Research just published a new report, 2013 Automated Test & Verification Tools (ATVT), volume 3 of our Software & System Lifecycle Management Tools intelligence service. The report looks into the most critical trends and market drivers impacting the rapidly evolving use of dynamic test and static analysis tools in the embedded and enterprise/IT markets. We expect revenues for several product segments within ATVT to expand at a double digit growth rate over the next several years, fueled by a number of factors. One of the primary challenges fueling ATVT use is that... Read more →