by Hema | Dec 15, 2020 | Device Manager, iot platform | 0 comments
The need for IoT (Internet of Things) in the market is progressing at a speedy rate. The main objective behind this rapid growth is an immense claim for IoT platforms, IoT devices and other components. However, if you start building your own IoT framework, you will end up wasting more money & time. Hence, you need a complete IoT platform which brings down your development risk, speeds up your product’s time-to-market and reduces cost. There are a massive quantity of IoT platforms available in the market. Prior to beginning with an IoT project, you ought to sort a list of choices for picking an IoT platform that suits your criteria. To help you with this selection, we have drafted this IoT Platform comparison article with some of the most popular IoT platforms like Bevywise IoT Platform, IBM Watson, AWS IoT Platform, Microsoft Azure IoT Platform and the essentials of using them in your project.
Building an IoT framework / infrastructure is a huge task which requires high mastery across various domains. It can cost an arm & a leg. Hence, an enterprise ready platform constituting of protocols, tools & SDKs supporting a wide range of IoT solutions should be used to build IoT applications easily. This will remove the risks associated with adoption, reduce costs, accelerate time-to-market, and maintain quality standards.
This article compares enterprise-ready IoT platforms such as Bevywise IoT Platform, IBM Watson, AWS IoT Platform, & Microsoft Azure IoT Platform with respect to their basic & unique functionalities.
The first & foremost thing every application developer expects from the IoT Platform is the device management functionality. Device management is one of the most important features of the IoT platform. Application developers bank on the IoT platform to manage a list of devices connected to it and trace their performance status. It should be able to pick up device configuration and lay out device-level error reporting and error handling. Finally, in the end, end users should be able to obtain individual device level status. In that case all IoT platforms such as Bevywise IoT Platform, IBM Watson, AWS IoT Platform, Microsoft Azure IoT Platform provides justice for end users in terms of device management functionality by enabling them to manage IoT devices at scale.
Integration with other necessary applications is another important aspect likely to have from an IoT platform. Most IoT platforms support API integration that provides access to the necessary functions and data that needs to be displayed from the IoT platform. Generally REST APIs will be used to perform this. Platforms such as AWS IoT Platform & Microsoft Azure IoT Platform supports REST API, IBM Watson supports both REST & Real-time APIs. Bevywise IoT Platform exclusively supports Data push over websocket to push the rule or alert message as notification & FCM to push data as notification to android / ios app along with the REST APIs.
The security actions required to work on with an IoTplatform are much higher as huge number of devices are connected to it. There will be a high risk of security issues & vulnerabilities when the devices are connected to the internet. Generally, the connection between the IoT devices and the IoT platform and the data transfer needs to be encrypted with a strong encryption mechanism to prevent security threats. But, we can’t expect devices involved in the IoT framework to support advanced access control functionalities. Hence, the IoT platform itself should provide some built-in security options to make secured device connection & data communication.
And when it comes to security, all IoT platforms support TLS & authentication features. But in addition to it, Bevywise IoT platform supports inbuilt device identity & authorization, TLS/SSL authentication, Device level authentication and custom authentication to provide customized security functionalities that suit specific needs of users. In addition to this, Bevywise IoT platform supports integration of the IOT Device IAM for the enterprise to leverage and have more control on their devices instantly.
The protocols used for data communication & device connectivity need more attention as it is another important feature. This is because the IoT platform needs to be scaled to millions and it requires a lightweight communication protocol to enable low energy use & low network bandwidth functionality.
Most of the platforms use MQTT as their communication protocol as it is an extremely lightweight messaging transport with minimal network bandwidth. Similarly, IBM Watson, AWS IoT platform supports both MQTT & HTTPS, Bevywise supports MQTT & websockets, and Microsoft Azure supports MQTT, Websockets, HTTPs, AMQP.
The above mentioned functionalities are the basic things which every IoT platform should be able to provide.
The IoT Platform Comparison table below provides the more detailed comparison of each & every features of Bevywise IoT Platform, IBM Watson, AWS IoT Platform & Microsoft Azure Platform.
| Features | Bevywise IoT Platform | IBM Watson | AWS IoT Platform | Microsoft Azure IoT Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol (for Device Connectivity) | MQTT, Websockets | MQTT, HTTPs | MQTT, HTTP | MQTT, Websockets, HTTPs, AMQP |
| Integration (for Application building ) REST API, Data Push over Websocket, FCM – Mobile Push | REST API, Real-Time API | REST API | REST API | |
| Visualize Data Yes. Dynamic Graph, Comparison graph and Historical graph | Yes (Need an additional Service) | Yes (Need an additional Service) | Yes (Need an additional Service) | |
| Device Security TLS/SSL Authentication, IAM integration, Custom Authentication | TLS, Authentication LDAP | TLS, Authentication | TLS, Authentication | |
| Multi Tenancy | Yes. Separate console for each user | Create individual accounts. Single account is for single user implementation. | Create individual accounts. Single account is for single user implementation. | Create individual accounts. Single account is for single user implementation. |
| Admin Console | Yes | No | No | No |
| Mobile SDK | Android and IOS SDK | Android SDK | Android SDK | Android SDK |
| Voice Integration | Amazon Alexa and Google assistance | No | Only for Alexa, but configure through a separate tool | No |
| Extend & Customize | Yes. Write code for a common implementation across all your users | Yes, You must use the UI to do it | No. Have to use the UI to do it | No. Have to use the UI to do it |
| Rebrand | Yes | No | No | No |
| Data Ownership | You own the data and you can host it yourself | No | No | No |
| Host behind firewall | Yes | No | No | No |
| Register command (to add sub device below main device) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Rule engine | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Widget | YES. Line graph, Bar graph, text, Color, Gauge, donut graph, vertical and horizontal scale, LED indicator, Switch, and Table. | No | No | No |
| Register command to add a sub device below the parent device. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Multi tenant for Users | Yes. Allow users to add their customers with predefined roles | No | No | No |
| Device Grouping | Yes | No | No | No |
| Notification | Via Websocket, FCM, Email and to Device | No | No | No |
Hope this article will help you choose the right platform for your IoT deployments.
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