The Three Villains of IoT & How to Be a Super Hero Date:   Monday , July 18, 2016 Headquartered in Bavaria, Germany, Axiros offers device and service management solutions that enable businesses with the ability to manage and support any protocol, any device and any service at any time. IoT has brought about many new opportunities, and companies around the world are jumping at the opportunities and advantages it holds. Before IoT promises suck you in, there are many considerations that need to be taken seriously and addressed head-on in order to maximize ROI and ensure your investment is a long-term strategy and not a short-term failure. Today we will address three head-on, and give you immediate strategic steps you can take in order to be an IoT superhero: Integration The first and most pressing is integration. How will the system integrate with legacy equipment and work with devices that currently exist, as well as those that are planned (or unplanned) for the future? When looking at solutions, it is important to emphasize connection as well as device management and control for your network. When you have a heterogeneous eco-system of devices, this is important not only for telemetry, but also (and maybe more importantly) for the actual control of those devices. The integration capability also extends to the ability to manage complex interaction flows which involve synchronous to asynchronous adaptation. When working with a solutions vendor, ask questions! What protocols are supported? Can you show me proof of concept? Who has deployed this? How long will this take? Look for a partner, not just a provider. Containerization The IoT world is extremely diversified and every eco-system requires a combination of multiple capabilities from a combination of providers. From a deployment perspective, it is a nightmare in terms of the ability to scale horizontally and vertically and to manage single services. The same happens from an operation and management perspective on the resulting platform. Robust containerization technology can effectively address both problems with the additional benefit of exposing all the capabilities through an API management layer which can be consumed by the partners in the ecosystem. Examples of such micro-services are automatic provisioning, inventory, identity management, health monitoring and many more. Again, the solution here is working with a partner you trust and who has proven technology that can withstand your requirements - both today and for the future. Put together a must-have list and a wish-list, then meet with the vendor. They\'ll help you fill in things you didn\'t even realize you needed (but must have for a successful deployment!) if you missed anything and come up with a solution that fits your budget and your needs. Ontology/Data Mapping Another big challenge in the IoT world is the multiple ways that edge devices use to represent the same concrete data entity (for example, presence seen by a volumetric sensor). This represents a major challenge in the way platforms integrate physical devices, implement the corresponding automation logic and build higher level data structures (i.e. contexts) which bring the value to their users. To address this challenge, ask what format data is collected? How is it processed? How is it delivered and what the GUI looks like? What is the ease of use? Is there a subscriber side as well as a call center solution available? Work with a vendor who has been there and seen it all. This will minimize your time-to-market and costs. We know that as a vendor, we have already faced a very similar challenge in the integration of the communication devices in our own traditional business and have ported our expertise in this new domain to further develop our solutions. So we aren\'t just preaching it - we are living it!