Episode 13

The AllSeen Alliance gets a lot of press but it’s still mostly misunderstood. For most its name is synonymous with home IoT but that’s only the first step in a broader vision that encompasses consumer, commercial, industrial and infrastructure IoT. It’s currently focused on home automation because that’s the current focus of its members. But this will change over time. In this episode of the IoT Inc Business Show, I discuss all things, AllSeen and AllJoyn with Philip Des Autels and his view of the Alliance’s future.

Philip has 25 years of experience in the areas of: Cloud, Mobile and IoT – focusing on managing the interface connecting technology and society… he’s also senior director of IoT for the AllSeen Alliance. AllSeen is a cross-industry collaboration to advance IoT through an open source software project called AllJoyn – which was developed to enable billions of interoperable devices, services and apps.

AllSeen provides the AllJoyn open source code to any company, member or not, to get a head start on developing IoT products, solutions or services. It’s architected like a layered cake. At the bottom is the core messaging protocol independent of industry segment, next there are base services for onboarding and then there are unique service frameworks. It’s at this top level where we are interpreting the Alliance’s home focus since the first two service frameworks are for lighting and home appliances & entertainment.

Are they a player? Yes. Having an install base of 10 million devices (courtesy of Qualcomm who donated the project), makes it so. Their current focus makes them competitive with the Thread Group. Their future focus will make them competitive with the Open Interconnect Consortium. Do they want to compete? Not necessarily. They realize, as the industry does, that there’s room for and a desire for consolidation and they’re wise enough to be open to it.

There are five main IoT alliances/consortia/groups focused on the Internet of Things and I interview them all. The Internet Protocol for Smart Object (IPSO) Alliance has been around for a while but the Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), the Thread group, the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and the Allseen Alliance are relatively new. Depending on your focus, one or more of these organizations and are worth looking into when starting your IoT journey. Listen to this mini podcast series to hear which ones.

Here’s What We’ll Cover in this Episode

Mentioned in this Episode and Other Useful Links