Iot platform types and common functions

Iot platform types and common functions

The business strategy and customer determine how to build your Iot platform content.

Iot is a product of the combination of IT and OT. Any IT-centric definition cannot describe the importance of OT, and vice versa. In this article, I will share with you how customers from different industries can use Iot platform's practical experience.

Iot platform type

• Industry Platform: Mainly has specific functions in the vertical field, such as industrial equipment performance and asset management, monitoring of patient medical services, logistics and transportation platforms, etc.
• Business Operation Platform: it is mainly a dedicated business function platform. The most common function is to provide support, maintenance, and management services.
• City Management Platform: all cities want to optimize city operations and citizen services. These services mainly include parking, lighting, and garbage collection. Therefore, IT in the city service platform (or city digital platform) can manage OT assets in the city.
• Pure software platforms or data platforms: these platforms are often referred to as the typical "Iot platform". The main function is to collect device data and transmit it to business systems or personnel, perform analysis and workflow integration.
• Software and Hardware Platform: if you are using ICT hardware and software (for example, networks or remote communication devices other than the above software), your platform is a complex, you can add OT hardware (industrial devices, medical systems, etc.) to the platform and regard it as part of the IOT platform.

General Platform

If we integrate all the above platforms and draw a picture, it looks like this:

IT is an IT + OT platform, instead of an ICT component-based platform.

The platform changes mainly by excluding the OT layer of the above physical layer, or only limiting the software content.

Common functions of the platform

If we exclude hardware, network connection challenges, and OT systems, we will eventually obtain a typical Iot softwAre platfoRm (or Iot data platform ).

It looks like this:

It can implement high-level business functions or operational tasks. Each task described can be regarded as its own "Platform", such as the asset management platform or Service Assurance Platform.

These changes are based on specific tasks of the following five core features of the IOT software layer:

• Connection: ensures two-way data exchange between devices and other systems for device configuration or management;
• Collection: Collects and manages data generated by devices.
• Analysis: complex analysis or AI technology analysis of dynamic and static data in the system;
• Integration: obtains available information from the data and provides feedback to the enterprise's workflow (fully automated or enhanced manpower). Data is published or provided to a third party through APIS;
• Application: transfers data to people (such as notifications, dashboards, approval chains, etc.) so that they can take actions based on the data.

However, it is easy to say that it is difficult to do. It takes many complicated intermediate processes to make the above a reality.

How to build it?

Fortunately, we don't need to create and build these functions from scratch. Various PaaS products are mature and we can use them to build our own business platform. The primary trick is to clarify the core content, optimize construction and operation costs.

Summary

There are a variety of solutions, as is the case for IoT platforms.

Your business strategy and services provided to customers determine how to define Iot platform content. Then, you can choose the appropriate components from the IOT platform.