Enterprise interest in IoT (Internet-of-things) and, subsequently, its adoption has increased manifold over the last few years. As enterprises witness positive returns from their investments in pilots and Proofs-of-Concept (POCs), they have started shifting gears scaling up the IoT projects. They are now exploring opportunities beyond gaining operational efficiency / cost savings with a more pragmatic approach of developing a connected ecosystem.
To support deployments at such a large scale and for complex use cases, enterprises need robust middleware capabilities and should exercise caution for selection while selecting an IoT platform. In our study of 450+ IoT engagements, no single platform could fulfill enterprises’ expectations across all layers of the stack. Almost 50% of the deployments required more than two platforms to assemble the desired middleware for large-scale IOT projects. In industries such as manufacturing, utilities, and healthcare, leading in IoT adoption, the top four platforms players have made significant investments and are leveraged in about 70% of the engagements. However, for industries such as travel, telecom, and retail, the middleware layer is further segregated with multiple niche platforms supporting enterprises’ needs, and the top four platforms are witnessed in only about 30-40% of the engagements. In such a scenario, selecting the platform partner(s) is a complex task and these platforms cannot be differentiated based on their technical capabilities alone. They need to be evaluated based on broader parameters, such as industry specific context, scalability, ease of deployment, and interoperability with legacy systems.
This report evaluates leading IoT platforms and identifies nine of them based on overall capability assessment and market traction witnessed across industries. In line with the enterprise expectation of next-generation capabilities, the report also outlines the key technology focus areas to guide enterprises and service providers in selecting the most appropriate IoT platform.
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