Attending Microsoft Inspire this past July was a great opportunity for the Bsquare team to connect with peers in the intelligent device space and speak with businesses across a variety of industries about how IoT helps them solve today’s challenges. We heard a lot about how security concerns are changing how providers think of building IoT networks. Key trends include:
Industrial IoT is Growing
Industrial IoT (IIoT) uses interconnected smart sensors and edge technology in industrial settings, such as manufacturing, energy, facilities-management, etc. to help businesses run smoothly and utilize data to improve operations.
This space is evolving rapidly. Companies like Microsoft are devoting significant time and resources to enhancing their IoT platforms. IoT is part of a broader vision for helping customers maintain security and efficiently operate complex systems and connected device networks.
Security is Critical
At Inspire, leaders across the tech space, including Intel and Microsoft, spoke about the importance of security in their solutions and product offerings. Industries are voicing concerns to IoT providers about data loss and malicious infrastructure attacks across connected device networks. Security must be built into an IIoT solution from the start – adding it later doesn’t work, and trying to do so is a recipe for disaster. Our team has always treated security as a foundational element of IIoT solution architecture. Now, advancing technologies like Azure Sphere are making secure IIoT solutions more accessible by providing greater protection at lower costs. It used to be common industrial practice to lock down an embedded device as much as possible, and very rarely if ever perform updates. In these days of connected devices, this is not enough.
So Many Choices – How Do Customers Pick an IoT Systems Provider?
The IoT marketplace is often bewildering for businesses that are just starting to bring intelligent devices into their operations management or supply chains. IoT is full of buzzwords, complicated networks and confusing terminology. At Inspire, the message from businesses was loud and clear: make things simple. By doing exactly that, Bsquare is working to make IoT more customer-friendly.
Providing guidance throughout the decision-making process helps businesses cut through the chaos to zero in on the best options – reducing startup time and getting IIoT systems running quicker. Our experience working with an array of industrial businesses, as well as partnerships with cloud and device providers like Microsoft and Intel, helps simplify implementation with insight into best practices and state-of-the-art technology necessary to create tailored, secure IoT solutions. Bsquare’s work with Microsoft’s Azure Sphere is a prime example of how we can simplify IoT.
Microsoft’s Azure Sphere Represents a Major Step Forward for the IoT Industry
With Azure Sphere, Microsoft has keyed in on one of the most exciting aspects of IoT: its potential to transform business operations, processes and entire industries. The security and scale achieved via Azure Sphere will allow industries from manufacturing to facilities management and transportation to begin operating on the edge. In addition to enabling secure device connections that weren’t feasible previously, Azure Sphere removes the burden of maintaining and updating edge software.
As this solution is deployed on a wider scale, businesses will turn to Microsoft and its partners to solve their unique integration problems. That’s where Bsquare comes in: no matter what platforms you use, our device systems integrators can help you incorporate intelligent solutions to meet your business objectives.