Choosing the Right Industrial IoT Platform

For OEMs and Operators choosing how to deliver and deploy enterprise-grade Industrial IoT solutions is nothing short of a strategic choice. On the one hand, the final platform must have the scalability, cyber-security, reliability, and flexibility needed to match the business long-term vision. But on the other hand, the Industrial IoT platform plan needs to align with business constraints like the availability of “big data” software skills, time-to-market, cost, and risk.

The Industrial IoT Platform Choices

In this article, we examine the four main IIoT Platform options available:

1. Constructing applications using Low-Code or Rapid Application Development (RAD).
2. Build using IoT-as-a-Service (IoTaaS) components, typically from Azure or AWS.
3. Build from Scratch, usually leveraging open-source components.
4. Or, leveraging Application Enablement Platforms such as our Flex Catalyst3 Platform.

The illustration below provides a side-by-side view of each of these alternatives:

Now let’s take each one by one for a little deeper view:

Building applications using Low-Code / RAD is - at least at first - the most low-cost alternative and has other advantages of requiring fewer specialty skills and having lower TTM and TCO. But, low-code platforms has its own limitations when it comes to flexibility (the built-in workflows don’t let them build the solutions they really want), portability (for example, on-premise deployments are not possible), IP Ownership (most of the application is configuration only with nominal original IP added), and Cybersecurity (there is limited to no controls to manage the security of what “Low-Code” actual code elements are added). As a result, these platforms certainly have a solid place in the ecosystem, but they have many hard limitations that often make them a poor choice for enterprise-grade solutions.

The next alternative is to build a platform using IoTaaS components. IoTaaS components are exactly that – components. By taking this path, it is up to the OEM or Operator to actually build the platform from the components. This entails defining an overall architecture that accounts for cyber-security, identity management, device connections and data transformation, data storage management, analytics functions, user interface front ends, scalability, disaster recovery, and much more. And this is just for the platform – the application construction comes next. As a result, cost, skills, TTM, and TCO are high. It is also important to note that with any IoTaaS alternative there is no real portability. Once this is done the solution becomes highly flexible, scalable, and with the right execution, cyber-secure. But, given the very high skills, TTM, and TCO, this alternative is suitable only for very large companies with abundant specialty skills available. However, IoTaaS could be very effective when used only to capture and transform edge data (as they do have some very effective tools for this) but then passing that data off to a more efficient application creation platform.

The Home-Grown alternative is by far the most difficult from a skills perspective, and depending on the scope of the applications needed will have the highest development cost, TTM and TCO. But, once completed, this alternative provides portability across clouds and depending on implementation to on-premise appliance deployments. Of course, scale, cyber-security, and flexibility will depend on the depth of detail and scope of the implementation. But given the very high cost, TTM, and TCO, this alternative is often cost prohibitive for all but the largest companies or for more modest and constrained application needs.

The last alternative is the Application Enablement Platform (AEP), such as the Flex Platform. What an AEP provides is not only a coherent platform that has built-in scalability, cyber-security, and reliability as well as the tools and workflows that dramatically simplify the process of building enterprise-grade applications. An AEP such as the Flex Platform is a working and full function Platform Core coupled with a working “Catalyst Application” that includes powerful and extensive IIoT functionality with a deep set of tools, workflows, and documentation for customization. In the comparison chart above, this option is “green” across the board, with the cost and skills columns marked as “OK” only because this all depends on the level of customizations (minor for first applications, and more significant as time goes on in strategic deployments) that OEMs and Operators choose to implement as they tailor their applications to best fit their products and competitive strategy.

The “Spider-Chart” below attempts to map these alternatives to the different product (fielded assets) and business dimensions that would be relevant in making this selection:

While the chart largely speaks for itself, a few key points are worth mentioning.

• Low-Code alternatives definitely have a solid place in the ecosystem, but where deployment scale, asset cost (this implies the need for more depth in the application), asset complexity, or asset criticality are even reasonably high, strategically investing in Low-Code solution for the long term can be a big risk.
• Despite the cost, TTM, TCO, and skills risks, IoTaaS is certainly the most flexible across all axes, as with more investment almost anything can be done.
• An AEP like Flex Catalyst3 Platform has all the capabilities of the IoTaaS alternative but with very distinct Cost, TTM, TCO and skills advantages - primarily because Flex is a fully integrated system ready to go. Bridging the Gap to Existing Systems and Prior Investments.

Many OEMs and Enterprises have already made significant investments in Industrial IoT, and regardless of the relative success of these investments – from a results velocity, cost, TTM, and TCO perspective – they are very reluctant to make a change. Spending on IIoT Platform solutions that don’t really meet your needs is not only painful, but with today’s modern AEP systems, they are no longer necessary.  

The Flex Platform makes it easy to interwork with existing systems, and also to quickly migrate logic from poorly performing systems into a modern framework. In short, there is no longer a reason to feel “locked in” to poor investments.

Making the strategic Industrial IoT Platform Choice

When you choose an IoT platform, you are not just taking a technical decision—rather having a commitment that will shape your business. While Low code/RAD platforms could look like attractive options, they will fall short on flexibility, security, as well as long-term scalability. The other available option? Assembling with IoTaaS components can provide maximum customization but would demand significant time, cost, and skilled resources leaving it just for the most resourced businesses. In contrast to both of these, Application Enablement Platform like Flex83 offers the right ground to deliver custom, scale-ready enterprise solutions without omitting interoperability and security. OEMs therefore will benefit from faster time-to-market, lower TCO, and full IP ownership—while avoiding vendor lock-in.