5 IIoT Platforms to Consider for Your Enterprise

These industrial IoT (IIoT) platforms offer different approaches to IoT analytics, device management, application development and integration.

Industrial IoT platforms (IIoT platforms) are typically defined as “a set of integrated software capabilities to improve asset management decision making and operational visibility and control for plants, infrastructure and equipment” (Gartner). IIoT platforms are built for industrial IoT application scenarios and designed for use within asset-intensive, highly regulated environments.

The industrial IoT platform: Why do you need one?

Today’s industrial IoT platforms come with advanced security and compliance features, at times specifically tailored to a targeted industrial segment. IoT collaboration is also written large and most IIoT platform providers offer different social features and the possibility to add a variety of collaboration types (e.g. developer, analyst, admin) to your projects. Multi-tenancy is often supplemented with a decentralized approach whereby each team within an organization can have its own project space.

The quintessential industrial IoT platform differs from the generalized IoT platform in a variety of ways. For a detailed description, read our article “An IIoT Platform, an IoT Platform, or MES: What’s the Difference and How to Pick One?” Here you will also find more about the advantages of industrial IoT platforms in comparison to classic manufacturing execution systems (MES).

For more information on how industrial IoT platforms help you get on top of challenges across your entire IIoT architecture, read “The IIoT Architecture: How to Tap Into Its Full Potential?”

We have compiled a list of some of the most exciting IIoT platforms on the market:

PTC ThingWorx

PTC ThingWorx is an end-to-end industrial IoT platform allowing you to build complete IoT and augmented reality solutions. The platform incorporates capabilities across the entire value chain within one offering, making it possible for you to

• connect different IoT devices and applications,
• manage connected devices from one central location,
• analyze IoT data and get real-time insights,
• analyze device performance, monitor and control processes, and systems.

ThingWorx comes with ready-made building blocks for apps and configurations for connectors, UI elements, and business logic so that platform users can build on these and create their own custom IIoT solution.

ThingWorx can analyze massive amounts of data using AI and machine learning techniques. Use cases range across manufacturing, service, and engineering. For example, platform users can leverage pre-built apps to connect engineers and operators with shop floor assets and so increase efficiency, reduce costs, and minimize downtime.

Litmus Edge

Built for the industrial edge, Litmus is a hardware-agnostic platform that allows you to collect data from any industrial asset, across vendors and asset generations. Connectivity is provided out of the box; the platform has its own pre-built device drivers and no programming is required to connect industrial machines or legacy equipment.

All in all, Litmus consists of two offerings, Litmus Edge which is a data suite for data connectivity, analytics, and app enablement plus Litmus Edge Management for device management, data management, and application management.

So the platform comes with ready-made apps and app templates plus the capacity to build and deploy your own custom apps. Litmus is among the few IoT platforms with their own app marketplace where users can access both apps provided by Litmus and by other vendors.

The platform also allows you to collect and analyze data while integrating the data with any cloud or on-premises system. You get the following data capabilities:

• data processing,
• data cleansing and storage,
• easy data sharing between edge and cloud,
• pre-built KPIs optimized for the industrial IoT edge, including KPIs for capacity and asset utilization, real-time alerts (anomaly detection), downtime, etc.

Software AG Cumulocity

Cumulocity is an industrial IoT platform by Software AG whose mission is to keep IoT “simple” and “stress-free”. The platform provides a unified IoT architecture that extends from the edge to the cloud. It makes it possible to connect to any device or industrial asset, read and analyze device data, and, according to the platform website, get started on an IoT project within minutes. Cumulocity is an open IoT platform. There are no coding skills required to get started.

The platform capabilities include:

• connectivity,
• device management,
• monitoring & control of assets,
• processing at the edge,
• data analytics,
• visualization,
• app integration,
• product development.

In terms of connectivity, the platform provides different approaches including Cloud Fieldbus for connecting industrial devices or machines using protocols such as Modbus and OPC UA. The analytics part of the platform comes with a range of pre-built models targeting industrial applications such as condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, and machine diagnostics.

The data visualization part of the platform allows for some customization and makes it possible, for instance, to put together floor plans with the exact locations of the industrial assets from which the data is being extracted in real-time. As an open platform, Cumulocity offers a range of pre-built connectors and templates for integrations with various applications and third-party services.

Davra

Davra is an emerging end-to-end, cloud-based IIoT platform that combines deep learning and other AI techniques to manage IoT networks and navigate IoT deployments. This industrial IoT platform focuses on enhanced IoT collaboration and flexibility, that is, the ability to respond to shifting dynamics in the field of IoT technologies.

The platform covers the following capabilities:

• data management,
• data analytics,
• rules engine,
• advanced GIS,
• integrations engine,
• edge device management,
• monitoring / lodging,
• complex event processing,
• a framework for application building.

IronFlock

Combining the best of all worlds, the IronFlock for collaborative IoT & AI comes with the full spectrum of IoT and data analytics capabilities. This is an end-to-end platform consisting of an IoT development studio and a data science studio. The IoT development part covers app development and deployment plus device management including device updates, monitoring & control of remote assets. The full data science studio consists of a classic data warehouse with data science capabilities on top. All services within the platform can be used independently of one another or together for a fully rounded end-to-end IoT development cycle.

As an open IoT platform, IronFlock is hardware-agnostic. It enables users to connect any industrial asset to read out data. The platform has its own flashing app for the parallel flashing and configuration of multiple devices at once.

Here is a breakdown of the platform building blocks:

• data collection from multiple disparate data sources, especially machine data,
• data transformation and data modeling,
• advanced analytics,
• data science workbooks (Python & SQL),
• data visualization with customization options,
• connecting, monitoring, and scaling device fleets,
• application enablement; IoT app development studio with an integrated cloud IDE,
• an app store for publishing and sharing apps and app templates,
• various social features and a granular user privilege structure to enable the collaboration among IoT and data science specialists.

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