The Internet of Things (IoT) finally appears to be making a significant impact in the modern economy, largely driven by Enterprise IoT market growth and its role in IoT for business. A recent report by Global Data forecasts the market for the enterprise IoT to reach $865 billion by 2026, signifying a compound annual growth rate of 9.6 percent compared to 2021. Unsurprisingly, businesses expect to see substantial business benefits of IoT.
This massive growth potential is also expected to create a multitude of opportunities for companies with robust software development for IoT capabilities to craft top-shelf IoT applications. These applications extend beyond the IoT devices themselves, with platforms including desktops, web browsers, and mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and wearables. The potential even extends to IoT embedded systems using touchscreens.
Notably, this massive growth potential is also expected to create a significant amount of opportunities for companies with the software development chops to craft top-shelf IoT applications. Beyond the IoT devices itself, the platforms for this software include the desktop, a web browser, and, of course, mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and wearables. Even embedded systems using a touchscreen remain a possibility.
If your organization seeks to harness the potential found in IoT platform development for businesses, it is crucial to understand the right approaches. This kind of software development spans multiple platforms, including everything from embedded devices to the cloud. This makes a Cross-platform IoT systems approach imperative for success in this still emerging market.
Choosing the right operating system for IoT is vital for platform development. Besides mobile devices running iOS or Android or client desktop apps using a web browser, Windows, or MacOS, the IoT platform's operating system largely affects software on the system's embedded devices, microcontrollers, and gateways. Surprisingly, Linux is the OS of choice for nearly three-quarters of the respondents in an IoT Developer survey. This makes the case for Linux for IoT quite compelling.Communication within an IoT system uses various IoT communication protocols. Your team needs to consider the right approaches for both wired and wireless communication, with standard wired options being USB, Ethernet, and Serial. A larger number of wireless protocols exist, further complicating the decision-making process.
When it comes to Managing IoT system data, almost all IoT architectures involve the collection, transmission, processing, and reporting of data. How your platform manages its data collection and processing remains a crucial task in any IoT project's early stages. This involves considering the overall complexity of the system's data and storage and analysis considerations. Leveraging the cloud for data storage and processing, or IoT data storage and processing, is often the best choice for complex IoT platforms.
When exploring potential IoT vendors, consider the Quality of IoT vendors SDK and API offerings as part of your criteria. An excellent API plays a critical role in optimizing the software development process for your engineers. Ensuring your project team is experienced with multiple operating systems is also crucial.
It is crucial to design and build a seamless, easy-to-use IoT System. Regardless of the complexity of the IoT system, it needs to be user-friendly. Advanced data analytics features leveraging machine learning might require a business expert to navigate, but the system's applications must provide seamless performance and be user-friendly.
A variety of options exist for the communication protocols used in an IoT system. As such, your team needs to consider the right approaches for both wired and wireless communication. In the former case, the standard options remain USB, Ethernet, and Serial.
A larger number of wireless protocols exist, including: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and LoRA. There are also low overhead options, such as MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, XMPP, or UDP. Expect to have to support multiple protocols depending on the specific needs of your IoT solution. Consider partnering with an experienced IoT platform architect to help decide on the right approach for the system protocols.
Nearly all IoT architectures collect, transmit, process, and report on data. So architecting how your platform manages its data collection and processing remains a critical task early in any IoT project. You need to consider the overall complexity of the data in the system, as well as storage and analysis considerations. Leveraging the cloud for data storage and processing makes sense for most complex IoT platforms.
As hinted at earlier, expect any relatively complex enterprise IoT system to use multiple operating systems. Linux or no OS likely works best for embedded IoT devices, while a mixture of operating systems need to be supported for the client apps used to manage, control, store, and analyze the data generated by the platform. In this scenario, seamless cross-platform integration and functionality remains a critical goal.
When exploring potential IoT vendors, make sure you consider the quality of their SDK and API offerings as part of your criteria. A great API plays a critical role in optimizing the software development process for your engineers. Also, ensure your project team boasts programmers with experience working with multiple operating systems – mobile, desktop, and embedded.
Do not skimp on Cybersecurity in IoT. While cybersecurity issues that plagued early IoT device management platforms have gradually lessened over time, it remains an important issue in any enterprise system. This includes ensuring Enterprise IoT system security is robust across all devices, cloud software, and mobile applications.
No matter the complexity of the IoT system, it needs to be easy to use. Sure, advanced data analytics features leveraging machine learning might require a business expert to navigate, but the system’s applications must be user-friendly with seamless IoT performance. Make this a core principle for your team throughout the project lifecycle. Expect to have a successful platform as a result.
If your company has a great idea for an IoT system but lacks the technical chops to make it a reality, connect with the team at NineTwoThree. We boast significant experience in IoT software development, effortlessly combining innovative technology and business know-how. Schedule a meeting with us to discuss the possibilities of a partnership.
