Until recently, brands looking to launch an IoT product could either use a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) vendor or develop a bespoke IoT device management system. The wrong decision can haunt a brand for years, since IoT platform migration carries significant technical risk and the potential to leave active customers feeling abandoned.
Cardinal Peak has developed a comprehensive solution to this dilemma — an IoT device management solution that provides the convenience of a PaaS with the control and flexibility of a bespoke system. Our option empowers you with all software installed in your AWS account (not trapped in a multitenant PaaS solution). No more worries about vendor lock-in, data ownership or geopolitical tensions. With a development cost approaching PaaS options and the ability to innovate novel features like a bespoke system, our solution enables the next generation of IoT products.
Cardinal Peak’s IoT Fleet Management Solution
With our global footprint of over 2,000 IoT professionals (onshore, nearshore and offshore), Cardinal Peak offers complete product lifecycle support, including:
- A full-service product development team to design any portion of your IoT system, from embedded devices through cloud, voice and mobile apps
- Efficient managed services for operations and Tier 2 support
- Cost-effective sustaining engineering
Feature Comparison Between Our IoT Device Management
System, a PaaS and a Bespoke Solution
| Feature | Cardinal Peak’s Solution | PaaS | Bespoke Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tested at Scale | Y | Y | N |
| Guidance on Product Development | Y | Y | N |
| Managed Services for Operations | Y (optional) | Y | N |
| Lower NRE Cost for Entering the Market | Close to PaaS | Lowest | Highest |
| Ability to Differentiate Features | Y | N | Y |
| Operational Costs at Scale | Lowest | Highest | |
| Data Always Under Your Control | Y | N | Y |
| No Geopolitical Risk | Y | N | Y |
| No Vendor Lock-In | Y | N | Y |
A Customizable IoT Device Management System in Your AWS Account
Our IoT device management system is deployed in your AWS account providing you the flexibility to switch vendors or take work internal at any time. There is no vendor lock-in and you can take over any aspects of development or operations that your team can tackle.
Espressif’s ESP RainMaker is an important component of our offering. Serverless fleet management software developed to run on AWS, RainMaker provides a wide range of features to speed up our development time thus lowering the non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs. Best of all, RainMaker has been:
- Optimized to minimize operational AWS cloud costs
- Demonstrated to scale to millions of devices
- Deployed in a dozens of high-volume IoT applications
Cardinal Peak is an ESP RainMaker preferred integration partner and an AWS IoT service delivery partner.
IoT Device Management Solution Built on RainMaker
IoT Product Design Case Studies
As experts in IoT device management solutions, Cardinal Peak designs IoT products as illustrated in the projects below. Contact us to discuss your unique requirements and get estimates of NRE and operational costs, and your product’s time to market.
Connected IoT and Smart Home Product Designs
Possessing experience developing connected products for more than two decades, our engineering team shares common smart home product design challenges and answers FAQs for designing IoT products, helping chart your product’s development.
UX Design & App Development for A Connected Beauty Device
Cardinal Peak — fusing its deep UX design, mobile app development, Bluetooth, cloud and system testing experience — helped develop a connected beauty device, resulting in an award-winning mobile application that improves the user experience.
Voice Enabled Smart Home Automation
Leveraging deep audio expertise, our engineers designed a smart home automation tablet with Alexa voice capabilities, video intercom and audio alerts. Our team developed the audio path state management, embedded software and application code.
Possessing experience developing connected products for more than two decades, our engineering team shares common smart home product design challenges and answers FAQs for designing IoT products, helping chart your product’s development.
Cardinal Peak — fusing its deep UX design, mobile app development, Bluetooth, cloud and system testing experience — helped develop a connected beauty device, resulting in an award-winning mobile application that improves the user experience.
Leveraging deep audio expertise, our engineers designed a smart home automation tablet with Alexa voice capabilities, video intercom and audio alerts. Our team developed the audio path state management, embedded software and application code.
PaaS vs. Bespoke IoT Systems
Choosing the right IoT device Management approach is vital. IoT system development is complex due to the many elements that must work together. Similarly, testing IoT products is challenging because of the variety of existing systems (such as wireless routers and Android and iOS smartphones of every vintage) and the different ways customers use products.
Elements of an IoT Device Management System
Beyond the development and testing required to create an IoT product, ongoing operational needs include fleet management, OTA updates, network monitoring and a help desk. General sustaining engineering is also required when the software underpinning the IoT system changes (e.g., iOS, Android, voice services, cloud services). These underlying software services undergo regular updates, necessitating IoT system software changes. The skills required to develop and operate an IoT system — as described above — are often not core to a brand’s skills, which is why PaaS solutions have thrived.
PaaS solutions such as Tuya, Ayla Networks, Afero, Pepper, Lexi and dozens of others, provide valuable services for brands new to IoT products: guidance on product development and IoT system operations. While PaaS solutions lower the NRE costs and the risk of launching a product, this decision locks brands into that PaaS solution for the life of that product. Consequently, brands continue paying platform fees for devices in the field as long as consumers use the products. In that time, a once-promising platform might lose market momentum or fall out of favor. Pricing changes create unpredictability as well. At its core, a PaaS solution is one-size-fits-all, so creating differentiated features or experiences for your customers is contrary to the premise of a PaaS.
On the other end of the development spectrum are bespoke solutions justified for unique applications. Frequently, developers underestimate the challenges in designing a bespoke system that can run at scale. Developing a new system from the ground up results in the highest NRE costs. Operationally, bespoke solutions are not as well optimized to minimize cloud service provider costs as a PaaS. Therefore, software refinement may take several iterations to minimize cloud costs.
Why Choose Our IoT Device Management Solution
Cardinal Peak has developed both bespoke IoT solutions and many products that rely on PaaS service providers. Having experienced the benefits and challenges of each approach, we offer a new solution that provides the best of both worlds. Our IoT device management system:
- Lowers NRE costs by sharing development costs for nondifferentiated fleet management features across many products
- Avoids vendor lock-in
- Optimizes cloud operational costs
- Scales well
- Allows for the creation of differentiated features/experienced
- Puts the brand firmly in control of their destiny
IoT Device Management System FAQs
What is an IoT PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)?
An IoT Platform-as-a-Service provides the building blocks for developing a connected product, whether that group of technologies is an on-premise software suite or a cloud service that monitors and potentially manages and controls various end devices. PaaS IoT platforms also enable product developers to extend applications, remotely collect data, secure connectivity and ultimately build new applications that drive businesses forward. Bottom line: IoT platforms make Internet of Things design, development and maintenance easier and cheaper but also come with custom feature, data ownership and vendor lock-in challenges.
What is Espressif RainMaker?
Espressif’s ESP RainMaker is a lightweight IoT cloud software, fully integrated into the AWS serverless architecture, which allows engineers to build, develop and deploy customized IoT solutions with minimumal code and maximum security. RainMaker is a suite of tools and services that simplifies the process of developing and deploying IoT applications. Learn more in our ESP RainMaker blog post.
Cardinal Peak is a Preferred ESP RainMaker Integration Partner, helping customers customize the end-to-end platform to suit their unique business requirements and create their own IoT cloud platform with full ownership.
What Does Cardinal Peak’s IoT Device Management Solution Add to RainMaker?
RainMaker’s suite of tools includes an SDK, AWS cloud backend, basic reporting, mobile app templates and support for voice assistants and Matter. Cardinal Peak’s IoT device management system leverages tools and adds key components and more to differentiate your product, streamline the BOM and add customer value.
- Embedded application development for device operations and communications
- Set up and configuration in your AWS account
- Custom cloud features like AI/ML, video and more
- Dashboard customizations
- Full mobile app development
- Customized voice commands
- End-to-end QA testing
- Managed services for turnkey operations
- Tier 2 help desk support
- Sustaining engineering services
IoT Device Management System Related Articles
IoT Fleet Management: Custom Solutions, PaaS and Accelerators
The Problem With Generic IoT Platforms — and Why We Avoid Them
While generic IoT platforms sound like a great idea, these “one-size-fits-all” platforms tend to only deliver about 60% of a typical IoT solution. By the time the remaining 40% of the problem is solved and productized, it has actually evolved to a bespoke customer application.
IoT Vendor Espressif is Making Waves with RainMaker
Designed to work with Espressif ESP32, RainMaker is a suite of tools and services that simplifies the process of developing and deploying IoT applications. In this blog post, our engineer shares an overview and answers FAQs around data ownership and customization.
While generic IoT platforms sound like a great idea, these “one-size-fits-all” platforms tend to only deliver about 60% of a typical IoT solution. By the time the remaining 40% of the problem is solved and productized, it has actually evolved to a bespoke customer application.
Designed to work with Espressif ESP32, RainMaker is a suite of tools and services that simplifies the process of developing and deploying IoT applications. In this blog post, our engineer shares an overview and answers FAQs around data ownership and customization.