07 Dec To Build or Buy the IoT Platform – the Answer is Clear
Episode 120
It amazes me that there are companies out there still intent on building their own middleware software to collect and transport sensor data to the cloud. This middleware is called the IoT platform and at last count, there were over 300 for sale. In this episode of the IoT Business Show, I speak with Jonathan Cobb about why it’s always better to buy or lease an IoT platform than to build it on your own. And I’ll give you a one-word hint: scale.
In this episode of the IoT Business Show, I speak with Jonathan Cobb about why it’s always better to buy or lease an IoT platform than to build it on your own. And I’ll give you a one-word hint: scale.
With me today on the IoT show is Jonathan Cobb. Jonathan is CEO of Ayla Networks, and before that he held senior executive roles at ARRIS and Pace. Jon began his career at IBM after graduating from Cambridge University, with a master’s degree in computer science.
Even if your organization has all the skills necessary to securely build this middleware, support it, document it and update it as device hardware and middleware changes, you still shouldn’t. Three of the main reasons are, the opportunity cost, it’s not strategic and it’s very hard to get right. This is plumbing and unless one of your company’s core competencies is networking, development of this middleware is much better to be left to the experts who have spent millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours to get it right. Focusing the same amount of energy it would take to replicate this middleware on what differentiates your customer solution will pay back much bigger dividends in the end.
Here’s What We’ll Cover in this Episode
- The growing influence of Microsoft’s and Amazon’s IoT cloud platforms and their effect on the build versus buy decision.
- Percent of customers who started trying to build their own IoT platform
- Platform issues related to scale.
- How a large coffee chain is saving tens of millions of dollars per year with IoT
- The POC or pilot purgatory problem when starting and IoT initiative from an engineering perspective.
- Relationship between IoT and digital transformation.
- Ayla’s useful definition of a digital twin.
- What IoT platform shoppers should consider beyond connectivity.
- Difference between digital transformation and digital transformation lite.
Mentioned in this Episode and Other Useful Links
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What issues have you faced when scaling a POC or pilot in production?
