In my previous post I tried to bring you closer to the different aspects of IoT Platforms; such as what is an IoT Platform, types of Iot Platforms, best IoT Platforms & IoT Platform Architecture.
If you missed it then;
Read: IoT Platform: Decoding the future of Internet of things
LIST OF TOP 15 BEST IoT PLATFORMS
Lot of my readers are interested in knowing which are best IoT platforms? So 2 weeks back I started researching about top Internet of things companies– which are providing development platforms for IoT Solutions. I researched rigorously day & night, round the clock, and the result is here in front of you all.
Friends, as promised I am here with LIST OF TOP 15 Most Popular IoT PLATFORMS 2016. Through this post I will try to familiarize you with the faces of Best IoT Platforms. Guys, much has been talked about the future tense of Internet of things. The latest one is from Sanjay Brahmawar; Global Head & Managing Partner of Strategic Business Development, IBM Watson Internet of things,
“Within the next two years, the internet of things will become the biggest source of data on the planet.”
My loyal readers, before we move ahead with this post on top 15 most popular IoT Platforms 2016, I want to say something. It’s required to have some basic knowledge of IoT & Internet of things for going ahead with this article on popular IoT platforms. If you have joined us late, then well, no worries; for initial information on IoT & Internet of things Concepts:
Read: Internet of things: Exactly what it is?
IoT platforms market is vast like an Ocean! You will be surprised to know that today IoT ecosystem holds more than 300 IoT Platform companies! Keeping this scenario in the mind, it has become all the more necessary to correctly know the names of best IoT Platforms in the market.
Now the veil is off of the LIST OF TOP 15 MOST POPULAR IoT PLATFORMS 2016. Let’s have a quick look on them:
Best always comes from the leaders! Amazon Web Services is one of the world’s fastest growing Tech Giant. AWS always falls in the top IoT Platforms list. It’s a sister concern of Amazon.com. On 7th October 2015 at LAS VEGAS annual Re: Invent Conference, AWS took the whole world by surprise & excitement by announcing one new services after another. AWS IoT development Platform was one from the great surprises! As per Amazon, AWS internet of things platform is a managed cloud platform which facilitates easy, smooth, secured communication & interaction between the connected devices, Cloud Application & other external devices in the IoT platform ecosystem. Unique features of AWS IoT Platform are as follows:
- Registry- gives unique identity to each devices for easy identification
- Device SDK’S (Software development kit) – set of libraries provided by Amazon to be used in the devices for development
- Device shadows- to create a persistent shadow of the device, depicting device’s most recent state. The advantage of device shadow is that applications and other devices can read messages and communicate with the device in picture even when the device is offline.
- Device Gateway- facilitates secured and efficient communication of devices with the AWS IoT using publication/ subscription model. The communication process can be ‘one –to- one basis’ or ‘one- to- many basis’.
- Rules Engine- the role of Rules Engine is to check inbound messages coming to AWS IoT & to change & route such messages to other device(s) or cloud.
- Authentication & Authorization– AWS IoT Platform offers AWS Method based as well as certificate based authentication & authorization of devices & applications in order to avoid erroneous exchange of device data.
It’s an IoT Platform from IBM in PaaS form i.e platform as a service. It is one of the best IoT Platforms in the market today. It is often being called as the next generation Cloud App Development Platform. The advantage of using IBM Bluemix is that for developing an app you don’t need to set up development environment & server as it is readily available in IBM BLUEMIX. You can easily start developing app with the help of JAVA Liberty, Node.js, php.
With IBM BLUEMIX & IBM WATSON, the BIG BLUE has placed its foot firmly in the exploding world of Internet of things. In cognitive era no one can beat IBM in cognitive capabilities (as per Google “Cognitive computingis the simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model. Cognitive computing involves self-learning systems that use data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing to mimic the way the human brain works).
IBM WATSON as an IoT Platform has already become very popular among developers. Watson gives deep insight into large amount of unstructured data through natural language processing with the use of text-to-speech engine and machine learning.
The advantage of IBM Bluemix & IBM Watson IoT Platforms is that they both enable the developers to deploy IoT applications on their own.
As per Cisco the number of IoT devices will go to 50 BILLION till 2020! With a bird’s eye view, Cisco has targeted extensively to grab a major share of the projected 50 BILLION DEVICES. The devices will bring a deluge of mobile data traffic, management and applications. To tackle such a huge amount of data, businesses need to have an exhaustive, secured and adaptable environment so that they can stay competitive in the market.
This is where the role of Cisco IoT Cloud Connect becomes more crucial and indispensible. Cisco IoT Cloud Connect is a cloud based IoT Device Platform of Cisco to provide IoT Solutions to mobile operators. Its main features are:
- Global IoT connectivity
- Fully automates IoT Service delivery
- Data & Voice connectivity
- IP Session Control
- SIM lifecycle management
- Personalized Billing & Reporting
- Entry level cost is very low
- Detailed cost structure for higher profitability
- Empowers the mobile operators to do business at lower average revenue per connection (ARPC)
- Real time visibility & updates of the network at every level
In recent times Cisco has also tied up with the National Farmers Federation in Australia to offer IoT Solutions in Agri Sector.
ThingWorx is the next incumbent in most popular list of IoT Platforms. In 2013 PTC acquired Thingworx. As per the official information present on the site of PTC, ThingWorx IoT Platform offers you with all the required tools & capabilities to make SMARTER IoT SOLUTIONS for the enterprises. ThingWorx main features are:
- Smooth & easy Connectivity- of the devices with the platform using ThingWorx connectivity. For industrial connectivity there is Kepware.
- Development tools are simple and ready to use to suite both- experienced as well as new developers
- Complex analytical processes for IoT data are fully automized in ThingWorx Analytics.
- Uses Augmented Reality Technology from Vuforia so that the end users can create better solutions & manage the devices in IoT without any hassles.
- Developers can share the platform with each other for speedy development
How can Microsoft lag behind in the race for capturing internet of things virtual world? Just similar to AWS, Microsoft Azure is a major cloud Player. Azure has some interesting support system for non- traditional models. Azure’s Service Fabric, Container Service & Batch Services makes it an ideal IoT platform. Plus it provides an ideal environment for Linux development. With Hadoop implementation, HDInsight,Apache Storm & Azure Stream Analytics Azure IoT Platform is capable to perform real time stream processing of the device data. Azure IoT Platform offer:
- Device connectivity
- Remote monitoring
- Predictive maintenance
- Back Up & Achieve
- Big Data & Analytics
- Data Warehouse
- Development & testing of IoT App
- Disaster Recovery
ThingSpeak is an open source comprehensive cloud IoT Platform to develop Professional IoT apps where analytic and historical data are crucial. With ThingSpeak you can easily send data from Raspberry Pi to cloud. As per the information posted on ThingSpeak website, it provides:
- Collection & storage of device data in real time
- Uses data Analytic & visualization services from MATLAB
- Scheduling
- Sends alerts
- Device communication
- Open API
Powered by Thunder, Saleforce IoT Platform is a unique one which collects all data from the connected devices to the team of Salesforce which in turn gives closer look of the captured data and suggests customer actions in real time. It is an IoT platform as a service (PaaS) which enables developers to create add on applications – that can integrated with Salesforce team. It offers cloud IoT Platforms for CRM Solutions. But its services are not only limited to CRM Solutions. They have their individual application store to upload apps much similar to Google Play Store.
No doubt, Oracle provides best platforms for applications and middleware technologies. In 2015, Oracle announced Integrated Cloud Service (ICS), an entirely different way to design and push integrations into the Cloud. It’s a great analytics platform for IoT applications. One of ICS Unique feature that it simplifies integration of applications and Services in Cloud, Mobile or IoT.
Of late Carriots as a PaaS IoT platform is picking up very fast among the developers community due its simplicity and easy integration features with external apps. Carriots IoT Platform is used to build and host Internet of things applications. Plus user interface of Carriots apps is something to die for! What you can do with:
- Device management
- Send API request
- Date export requests
- Geo- location Integration
- Dashboard to manage the things
- Alarms management
- SDK Development Engine
- Write and debug application code
Predix is an IoT Platform is from none other than the world’s industrial Giant-General Electric Co. It has entered into a partnership with Microsoft to push industrial internet of things platform into Microsoft’s Cloud. It’s a huge boost to GE’s IoT Ambitions. Predix enables industrial machines to connect to industrial internet. With Predix– from train wheel to a package shipping machine – any industrial machine- can be connected to cloud!
As per the official text available on Kaaproject.org, Kaa is a complete open source middle ware IoT Platform to develop internet of things apps & solutions.
Advantages of using Kaa Iot Platform:
- It’s a complete open source platform
- Entirely free
- Brings down development cost considerably
- Capacity to manage millions of connected devices at a time
- Prototype smart products
- Collect and analyze and visualize data in real time
- Connect and manage device with the help of Cloud
- Gives liberty to deploy IoT solutions at any place
Aeris IoT Platform is the only platform which provides integrated Connectivity, M2M Solutions and a complete set of IoT solutions. In connectivity technologies no one can beat Aeris in the market. Driving factors towards Aeris are as follows:
- Reduces cost significantly
- Consumes very less time to market
- Opens new revenue stream
- Fleet management
- Reduces application development time
- No issue of consumer traffic on the network
If I have placed Automatski on the 14th number, then it doesn’t means that anywhere it is less effective & not popular as compared to others in the list. In Automatski own words it’s a Global Pioneer in IoT offering technology, frameworks, applications, infrastructure and intelligent components for building smart IoT Solutions.
Well, when it comes to occupying a hot seat in the list of Popular IoT Platforms, then Arduino is also not far behind. In fact it is the best IoT Platform in the entire market for the beginners in IoT. It is being extensively used by the IoT developers throughout the world. Even those with very little experience can build IoT applications using Arduino. Arduino falls under IoT hardware Platform category. Major attraction of Arduino:
- Open source- can interact with other control elements from other devices, engines and drives.
- Has built in micro-controller
- Projects or apps developed in Arduino can work both as standalone and in collaboration with other apps in the form of plugins.
- You can easily build interactive apps using animation & JVM Platform
- It is absolutely free for anyone interested
- Arduino offers analogue-to-digital input- which will be a great help to you if you want to connect temperature, light, sound or any other sensor modules
Only limitation is that it is 8-bit ATmega microcontroller so not that much compatible for advanced uses but still you can’t call it a mini computer. Arduino is termed as the best IoT Platforms for new users & those who are interested in experiments. It is the best IoT application platform, providing brilliant interactivity with other external devices outside its environment.
Readers, I have tried my best to do justice with the factual information of this post on most popular IoT Platforms. Still if you find some little discrepancies, I hereby request you to come out with the updates. Scroll down and put your updates in the comments section. As a reader you all add lot of value to this platform- iotfunda.com – which I have created with a sole motive to keep you updated with all the latest news & developments happening in the IoT world.
In my next post, I am trying to come out with an intriguing post on internet of things examples-which will be entirely different from what you might have read till yet.
Thank you & have a nice time!
Meet you in the next post!
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