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IoT Evolution Expo: Build to Optimize, Not Compromise

In January, Ntirety had the honor of sponsoring the 2018 IoT Evolution Expo in Orlando, FL. The event is a digital haven for companies and organizations who wish to better understand and ultimately implement IoT solutions to enhance their business processes.

No Infrastructure Without Security

In our time at the expo, it was clear that this industry will see plenty of growth and widespread adoption in major industries like healthcare and transportation. But there is also widespread panic about potential data breaches and security issues, and vendors are unsure how to implement effective solutions from infrastructure to deployment that will help them be secure and compliant.

Many small and mid-sized companies came to the IoT Expo because they were either trying to get into the market or promote their existing solution as part of a larger ecosystem. The larger corporations wanted to see how they could integrate IoT and edge computing, or FOG devices, into their own solutions. But the market seemed to be divided at the expo between companies who wanted to own the intellectual property of the data and eventually build a platform, and companies who wanted the benefit from a connected platform but were willing to give up access to raw data in exchange for a simplified SaaS-delivered business model.

At the core of all these solutions is infrastructure. And many don’t want to worry with the server management business, or they lack the time, skills or expertise to manage this themselves. This results in security measures that are severely lacking. And everyone at the expo was concerned about security and compliance from the edge computing device all the way back to the datacenter.

A Better Way to Optimize

Several companies seemed to have, or are currently building, a solution that can hook into any platform, such as AWS, Google, Azure, and VMware. While this is ideal, many companies tend to stick solely with AWS. While the AWS platform can start off at a low cost, that will eventually increase exponentially, and many clients struggle with shrinking profit margins. And with providers as large as AWS, there is the unfortunate side effect of poor managed support, which means these companies end up self-managing or paying a separate company to manage basic monitoring and patching of servers. Calling on AWS or Google, or any other major provider for support, may usually only satisfy an immediate need but rarely focuses on the bigger picture of your solution, doing little to lower costs.

As the adoption of interconnected devices and networks continues to grow and be carried out in standard processes like billing, healthcare records, and more, there will eventually be more compliance and security challenges. With Ntirety, the real power comes from the fact that we are agnostic with platforms like AWS, Google, and Azure, while maintaining our own global datacenter network. And with our recent success in large global deployments such as Samsung’s smart TV network, we are poised to help enterprises understand the challenges with rapidly scaling a network and help avoid risks before they occur.