Imagine you’ve been seeing someone for a while. Suddenly, you’ve received a new job offer and a chance to earn a higher title. But your partner isn’t excited for you and warns you you’ll have to work more hours. You feel stifled and not supported. You feel like it’s time for a change. Now, imagine your IoT platform is stifling your growth in a similar way. It’s time for you to break up that toxic relationship, too. With exponential growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) across industries, many successful companies are outgrowing their current IoT platform. Niche IoT platforms cost too much at scale, lack features that are required by modern IoT products, or are being retired during this period of consolidation.
IoT platforms were widely available in the early 2010s. Many opportunistic companies launched what became niche IoT platforms, and many successful connected products adopted them. However, these IoT platforms now have outdated licensing models and architecture and lack features that modern cloud-based IoT platforms provide today. As a result, enterprise organizations with successful IoT products must still consider IoT platform migrations to more stable alternatives, such as AWS.
Signs It’s Time to Make the Switch
Do you have a niche IoT Platform that is sunsetting and leaving you in the lurch? If stakeholders are demanding features or analytics that you can’t provide, then it is time to break up with your current IoT platform.
For example, if you are on an existing platform, such as Xively, Axeda, GPC IoT, or IBM Watson, you are likely experiencing challenges and need to migrate.
Every minute you wait to migrate, you are restricted from implementing innovation for customers. Perhaps you are struggling with security or performance issues on your current platform. You may feel behind in your IoT innovation.
AWS is a strong player in this field and can provide a stable product. As organizations continue to grow their products, they are looking for a solution that can scale with a cost-efficient model to do so. They also need one supporting new features such as Google and Alexa Voice Skills. Niche platforms are not keeping up or are being sunset.
In contrast to niche providers, major players like Amazon have invested heavily in expanding IoT-specific features and services. They are constantly innovating in the cloud space. Their expansive global footprint makes scaling IoT solutions as simple as the slide of a digital button. And their pricing options become increasingly attractive as you scale.
Reasons to Migrate
There are many reasons to migrate. Here are a few:
• Difficulty maintaining the application
• Desired features are not offered
• Platforms cannot keep up with the speed of change
• Scaling on current platform is expensive
• Product owners want to stay on the leading edge of innovation in the IoT space.
• Businesses want stability
What’s Involved In Changing Your IoT Platform
At Vervint, we are ready to work alongside your team, no matter where you are in your IoT journey. And we have a specialized solution for IoT platform migrations.
Migrating to a new cloud IoT platform is not a simple, risk-free operation. Your IoT applications need to accomplish a lot of things, often simultaneously and interconnectedly, in order to provide value to both your business and end users. To successfully help clients shift platforms, we tackle migrations in three major phases, typically over the course of three months:
• Discovery and Planning
• Deployment and Customization
• Platform Migration
During the discovery and planning phase, we will work alongside your team to assess your current platform, its capabilities, the structure of your data, and much more. Then we will develop an in-depth gap analysis that outlines the benefits and potential drawbacks, if any, of a migration to a new platform. We will also create a granular proposal that defines the scope of work involved in your migration, timelines, and costs.
During deployment and customization, Vervint begins your migration by configuring your accounts on the new platform and deploying our IoT Foundation. This code jumpstart contains tools and services, including built-in features for device connectivity, a public API, device management, user management, data storage, a microservices framework, and more. Our IoT Foundation helps you move and adapt quickly, improve stability, and create security controls at every layer of your IoT solution.
Next, we begin customizing your environment, connecting devices, connecting to your app, testing, and validating that everything works exactly as it should for your unique devices, configurations, and needs.
Finally, with everything functioning optimally on the new platform, we can move user profiles, device configurations, and other data from your old platform to the new one. We carefully test and monitor the migration so you keep everything you had before and experience no downtime in services through the migration process. With confirmation of full functionality on your new platform, we can decommission your old system.
Get Started with Vervint
At Vervint, our unique expertise in strategy, design, development, and technical services helps companies reorient their focus on consumers, align stakeholders across departments, and leverage technology to gain a competitive advantage. Complete this simple form, and we’ll get back to you right away!
The content for this piece was developed with Aaron Kamphuis. Aaron Kamphuis is the data analytics and IoT practice manager at Vervint. He has worked in professional services and custom software for almost his entire career. At Vervint, Aaron focuses on building and maintaining an IoT and data analytics practice, creating and executing go-to-market strategies, managing a team of consultants, and supporting sales pursuits.
