Cradlepoint, a provider of LTE and 5G-based wireless networking devices, announced today it is partnering with Microsoft to make it simpler to build, deploy and manage Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
Revealed at the IoT Evolution Expo conference, the goal is to make it simple for solution providers to connect a variety of Cradlepoint edge networking device capable of collecting a variety of metrics with the Azure IoT Central cloud service developed by Microsoft, says Ken Hosac, vice president of IoT strategy and business development for Cradlepoint.
Azure IoT Central is unique in that it doesn’t require a massive amount of programming expertise to create an IoT solution, says Hosac. The managed Microsoft cloud service presents users with a graphical interface to access a software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications designed to manage and monitoring IoT devices.
By leveraging a MicroNetCloud Edge Connector for Azure IoT Central developed by Cradlepoint, IT solution providers can now more easily extend the scope of the services they provide into the realm of IoT without necessarily having to find, hire and retain professional developers, says Hosac.
Because of the nature of IoT applications, Cradlepoint is betting that most of those devices will be connected over a private wireless network rather than an 802.11 or wired network.
“We think private LTE is going to big in 2019,” says Hosac.
The challenge solution providers face today is not many of them have much expertise when it comes to IoT. The partnership with Microsoft makes it much simpler for solution providers to experiment with various IoT proofs-of-concept without having to make a major upfront investment, adds Hosac. Many organizations will, for example, want to test as many as 30 IoT use cases before focusing on the one or two that provide the most business value, advises Hosac.
In fact, most organizations are unsure not only unsure where to apply IoT, most of them have yet to work through the business models that would justify those investments. Add on top of that battles for control over IoT projects between operations technology staff that report to a line of business and internal IT departments, and it becomes clear IoT solutions will require more time before achieving mainstream adoption.
In the meantime, however, there is a unique opportunity for solution providers to start establishing a level of IoT expertise today that should pay substantial dividends all through the next decade.
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