As more than one-third of the world’s population is under stay at home or lockdown orders, the importance of being able to quickly build and deploy infrastructures that can connect data, machines and people is more important than ever. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can provide the ability to ensure that life and systems can continue even during a global crisis. But for these solutions to be quickly deployed, it is critical that developers be able to leverage true plug-and-play IoT tools that can allow ideas to go from zero to field ready in minutes and not months or years.
For example, the COVID-19 crisis has necessitated the need for local and federal governments to build field hospitals that can help to alleviate capacity issues as traditional hospitals are stretched. Often in less than a week, hospitals must be designed and built from the ground up in non-traditional environments ranging from parking lots to conference centers.
Having the right communications and critical monitoring systems in place is no less critical in a field hospital than it is in any other medical environment. The challenge is two-fold: 1) these new “hospitals” are not comprised of fixed rooms and facilities designed for medical use; and 2) the lack of time and technical resources available to spend months and years integrating many vertical and proprietary applications.
When minutes count, the need for IoT tools that are truly “plug and play” can go a long way to quickly make the leap from idea to field-ready and deployable. Plug and play IoT tools enable developers and solution architects to configure connectivity and data management with
Minimal to zero coding
No alteration of a machine or sensors firmware, software or hardware
Intuitive user interfaces that require minimal training to understand
Flexibility to allow for tool customization and plugins by power developers
Can be deployed and used in minutes
In the field hospital example, combining a ready-to-use, cloud optional software solution like Machinechat’s JEDI IoT Data Manager, an IoT solution architect would be able to quickly use off the shelf sensors and gateways to deploy a critical monitoring infrastructure in a field hospital within hours. This would allow field hospital operators to ensure optimal environmental conditions, track both human and equipment resources, and track and share data with key stakeholders.
Recent events have demonstrated that the ability to act quickly on accurate data can have a huge impact – not just in saving lives but in also ensuring that crises do not result in economic and other devastation. Being able to deploy an IoT project quickly will require plug and play tools that meet the above criteria and enable developers to focus their attention instead on creating applications that deliver enhanced IoT network outcomes and results that go beyond just “connecting the data”.
At Machinechat, our focus is on delivering plug and play IoT data management solutions that allow solution architects to quickly deploy IoT projects in minutes, not months. And right now, we need these ideas to become reality faster.
The time for plug and play IoT is now!