From PoC to Production: Solving IoT Solution Challenges as You Scale Up

Scalability in Industrial IoT: What is means

Running a marathon without an idea of how you will reach the destination is unfair right? Similarly, building an IoT solution with poor visibility on scale-readiness adds no value to your digital transformation programme. The IoT ethos is exponentially expanding, with rising demand in robust scalable solutions. The unending need to accommodate the growing number of assets, expanding network, and having an infrastructure that can support all this is crucially important, now more than ever.  

Scaling IoT solution deployments is no cakewalk—demands navigating through the pitfalls without compromising on any piece of the puzzle. But, with the right strategy, right tools, and patience, scalability can be achieved. We say it because we have done it!  

Let’s take the scalability gasp one step at a time.

What’s Holding You Back

Have you ever sat and just thought why are you not able to build a scale-ready IoT solution, or maybe why you have built a solution but still stuck at scaling it?  

Here are the challenges businesses face while scaling IoT deployments:

a. The Skyrocketing Data

‍One of the major challenges businesses face while scaling IoT is failure to handle the data deluge. If you are working with a few assets, it might feel like a win but handling data from thousands/millions of assets could make it look fussy. IoT devices generate vast data (network data, sensor data, user data, device metadata, more) and with the increasing data, you have to deal with the multi-fold complexity. You can’t just keep on receiving raw data that is stored on different platforms (public cloud, private cloud, edge devices, gateways), you will need to manage and analyze, all without overwhelming your system. Plus, the variety of data that continuously comes along with increasing number of assets might feel like something that can’t be handled.‍

How to solve:

What do you do when you are overworked? You go by the “Rule of Three” which means doing the most crucial task first and then segmenting the rest as per your time and bandwidth. Similarly, when you have to manage a lot of IoT data, consider the three challenges that occur during the three phases of deployment and work on them, prioritizing each one after another.

1. Designing Solutions:
   In the very early stage of designing an IoT solution, you must take a data-centric approach—where you not just focus on connecting the devices but also lay a future plan for data management. Designing scalable architecture that’s capable of handling vast volume, velocity, and veracity of data while also supporting real-time data processing and analytics is the way to move forward. Businesses need to have a robust data strategy from day one.
2. Managing Solutions:
   Once you have deployed the IoT solution, you need to maintain the incoming data—which means ensuring the right quality, accuracy, and data security. Businesses need to validate, clean, and inculcate suitable techniques to ensure data integrity. Having strong security protocols such as data encryption, access controls, and anonymization will guarantee safeguarded sensitive information while also aligning with the privacy regulations. Doing this, you are protecting your business from vulnerabilities and reputational risks.
3. Integrating and Using Data:
   When you have planned to manag your data, the next step in resolving the data deluge is to optimize how the data is processed and analysed. Here are the few necessary steps that can help in the process:
   
   • Reduce redundancy via deduplication
   • Enhance speed with caching
   • Minimize network and connectivity strain via compression
     Moreover, by integrating the capabilities of AI and Machine learning such as predictive analysis and anomaly detection, you can transform raw data into actionable insights.

b. The Lacked Synergy (Interoperability)

As per McKinsey, interoperability is essential for unlocking up to 40% of the total IoT technologies can provide. Yet, interoperability is one of the biggest challenges in IoT solution scaling. More the number of devices, less the chances of them coordinating with each other. The different hardware, data formats, communication protocols make it difficult for everything to work in sync.  

Another barrier to interoperability is the proprietary technologies manufacturers pose in their businesses. Many of them build unique protocols and standards in the vision of gaining competitive edge in the longer run but often end up with siloed ecosystems. This further leads to vendor lock-in situations, where the customers and the businesses confine to limited flexibility and limited ability to scale or even integrating new technologies.  

Data formats and semantic differences can also affect the interoperability between IoT systems. When thousands and millions of assets are connected, there could be difference in data formats that can hinder effective communication and data exchange.

How to solve:

For smoothly deploying your IoT solutions at scale, you need to conquer the interoperability gap. Begin with using communication protocols such as MQTT, CoAP, or OPC UA that can seamlessly work even in complex ecosystems and foster interoperability. Use an Application Enablement Platform like Flex83 that has API integrations to help you build an ecosystem that supports interoperability. The platform streamlines communication between multiple devices that use different protocols and standards, acting as a mediator across multiple technological boundaries. Not just that, Flex83 reduces the need for extensive modification to existing infrastructure, allowing better interoperability.

c. The Cost Catapult

Growing devices, connectivity, maintenance, storage? Summing up—More and more cost. Before you know it, you are already overburdened with added bills. Scaling IoT deployments indirectly means hidden expense. And when data comes into the picture, every minute is an additional penny. More connected assets generate more telemetry data, that needs to be stored and retrieved. There is a cost attached to the increasing data volume and the frequency to which you access it. You also have to pay for the moving data between multiple assets, the additional cloud storage, and the analytics tools. Plus, add the API usage costs and more.

How to solve:

Scaling IoT but make it affordable is what every industrial OEM is looking for. For manufactures venturing into the IoT deployment, relying on low-code/no-code platforms might look like a promising option because of the comprehensive features, ease of integration, and cost-effective MVP development but the allure is limited to small scale deployments.

When handling thousands/millions of assets and with the exponential growth of IoT ecosystems, the same platforms can become financial burden with the underlying costs. The telemetry data from multiple assets need to be stored and retrieved and the cost increases with increasing data volume as well as access frequency. The cost of data transfer, cloud storage, analytics tools and API calls could further escalate with complex systems.

The new software paradigm-Flex83 helps you reduce the cost and time of IoT deployments at scale by providing a pre-built, customizable framework that not just helps you accelerate the solution development process but also focus on the business logic rather than the underlying extra work.

d. The Security Constraints

When you deploy an IoT solutions at scale, it clearly means you are dealing with more data and devices. Greater number of connected assets adds more attack surfaces, and more people can access the network. Plus, handling the threats to the large volume of data is significantly important. With an abundant amount of sensitive data being generated every second, ensuring secure data transmission, access control of data, and storage, maintaining privacy is crucial.

Read our customer story on how to scale your Industrial IoT solution: https://www.iot83.com/case-studies/smart-iot-driven-solution-for-a-global-power-management-oem

How to solve:

You can’t compromise on security, especially when you are working at a global scale. You need to build the required security from day one. Ensure asset authentication, end-to-end encryption (from hardware and connectivity to the cloud) and routinely security updates.  To lock all the way a threat could penetrate the IoT ecosystem, perform regular penetration testing and build a zero-trust architecture. Compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC II, open event logging framework, firewall protection, and all the other checkpoints should be checked.

e. The Architecture Issue

Scaling is a lot more than just adding assets; it also requires the suitable architecture that can handle the increasing data flow, network, and connectivity. For sustainable scaling, you need to build an architecture that can adapt to the growing needs of your solution. Ensuring fault tolerance and handling a multitude of devices efficiently demands an unbreakable architecture.

How to solve:  

Large-scale IoT deployments can be complex and mostly consists of multiple components and technologies that need to work together. When we talk of scaling, we must not forget about interoperability and flexibility—having an architecture that can support multiple systems, assets, and solutions. You have to design an interoperable architecture to futureproof your solution. Build a highly scalable IoT architecture that leverages modular, microservices-based design, where each functional component operates independently and communicates via platform-agnostic APIs. This allows each service to be developed, compiled, deployed, and scaled separately, improving manageability and performance. By decoupling the application into functional units that work in parallel, organizations can optimize individual services without disrupting the entire system, making large-scale IoT deployments more agile, scalable, and resilient.

f. The Connectivity Failure

Connectivity is one of the most critical—and often underestimated—challenges faced when scaling IoT deployments. As you expand your IoT footprint across diverse environments, there are more chances of encountering varied and complex operational technology infrastructures. Each environment demands unique connectivity solutions, ranging from long-range satellite or leased line communication to low-latency local protocols. Bandwidth limitations become a significant concern, as real-time data transmission must be prioritized to ensure timely alerts and operational safety.  

Most industrial environments involve a mix of legacy systems, proprietary technologies, and modern equipment using different communication standards such as Modbus, BACnet/IP, or MQTT. Ensuring interoperability between these systems is a challenge that can result in isolated data silos, hindering the true potential of IoT. Add to that the need for secure, scalable, and future-proof connectivity infrastructure, and it becomes clear that IoT success hinges on robust connectivity planning.

How to solve:  ‍

To solve the connectivity challenge, begin with identifying the network bottlenecks.

• For lower latency and higher bandwidth, choose to upgrade to 5G.
• To bridge the connectivity gap in remote areas, you can use LoRaWAN or satellite connectivity.
• Ensure cellular coverage and build fail-proof mechanisms to keep your solutions running all the time.

g. The Sustainability Fall

Deploying an IoT solution at scale should also be passed through the “zero waste lens”. The abundant data generated by IoT devices raises significant security and privacy concerns. From resource extraction to electronic waste, improper production, operation, and disposal of IoT devices can lead to environmental degradation. As IoT deployments grow, so does the environmental footprint.

How to solve:  

Your customers would want eco-friendly solutions; therefore, you need to create those. Ensure you are following green IoT practices such as using energy-efficient assets, choosing renewable energy sources for your infrastructure, and prioritizing edge computing to reduce the bandwidth usage.

Building a Concrete Scalable Solution Plan

The Industrial IoT Solution you build should be scale-ready from the beginning. From piloting to production-ready, it is all about detailed planning. Tying all the strings together is the way ahead and for that, your solution should have the necessary data that can drive value, effectively manage assets deployed at the customers’ end, a scalable IoT backend design, and should have scalable installation processes. For all of this to happen, you would need a platform that can help you design customizable and scale-ready Industrial IoT Solution.

Meet the New Software Paradigm

Designed for YOU and YOUR CUSTOMERS

Flex83 is an IoT middleware that bridges the gap between technical complexity and business-driven outcomes. Unlike traditional platforms that focus solely on frameworks or toolkits, Flex83 core contains 30+ pre-built microservices, giving engineering teams the freedom to innovate and build the scalable enterprise-grade IoT solution with 10x Time to Market and 6x TCO savings.

At its core, Flex83 was designed to tackle three critical pillars:

1. Scalability:
   Flex83 can handle massive IoT deployments. Flex83 is managing up to 65 million devices and managing 5 million gateways seamlessly for the biggest deployment. This scalability ensures that businesses can grow their operations without worrying about platform limitations.
2. Flexibility and Customization:
   Businesses often need tailored solutions to address unique use cases, operational challenges, or customer demands. Flex83 offers customizable modules, APIs, and accelerators application code, empowering companies to create solutions that meet their specific needs.
3. Speed and Cost Efficiency:
   Traditional development timelines can span for years. Flex83 significantly reduces time-to-market by providing pre-built micro-services, tools, and applications that eliminate the need to reinvent the wheel. With reduced infrastructure costs and operational overheads, businesses can achieve greater ROI.

Start Your Scalability Journey Today

Scaling your Industrial IoT solution might feel like a tough battle but with the right strategies you can see the expected outcomes and for sure they are worth the hype. It does not just yield operational excellence but also builds newer revenue streams and you are always working in the direction your customers want you to be. With an effective platform, you can decomplexify the journey and achieve the goals you have set for your business.  

Don’t just build IoT solutions but build the ones that are scale-ready. Connect with us today!

Read more: https://www.iot83.com/blog-posts/flex83-cuts-iiot-solution-development-time-to-6-months‍