IoT technologies have the power to enable small and middle market companies to achieve significant improved business outcomes, from improving operational efficiencies to reduced maintenance and labor costs to identifying new revenue and product opportunities. Still, a recent survey found that less than 10% of small businesses and less than 30% of middle market companies have deployed an IoT project. And in some cases, these organizations are abandoning pursuing an IoT strategy all together. Among the top reasons why: o High costs of implementation and deployment o Concerns over data security and privacy o Technical complexity and lack of skills to integrate IoT solutions with existing systems o Difficulty in maintaining and supporting IoT systems How Can Today’s Small and Middle Market Companies Be Successful in Deploying Affordable and Secure IoT Projects? For small and middle market companies to invest in deploying any IoT project, developers and system integrators must deliver solutions that are: · Affordable and provide a fast path to realizing ROI · Easy to use, maintain and can be expanded as needs change · Easily integrated with existing systems · Secure and minimize unnecessary data processing costs Ready-to-Use LoRa Hardware and No-Code All-in-One IoT Software: Deploy in Days, Not Months LoRa is increasingly gaining traction as a preferred wireless standard for IoT projects in Europe, Asia and now, the United States. Offering low power consumption, wider distance coverage (going as far as 20 kilometers or more) and affordable connectivity costs, LoRa can be applied across a wide range of IoT use case scenarios. These include smart agriculture, smart city, smart manufacturing and others. When paired with no-code all-in-one IoT software (like Machinechat’s JEDI One), ready-to-use industrial grade LoRa gateways and sensors, such as SEEED Studio’s SenseCAP line, can enable developers and system integrators to quickly deploy field ready IoT projects in days versus weeks and months. More importantly, developers and system integrators can focus more of their time and technical resources on creating an enhanced user experience and integrating the IoT project with a customer’s enterprise business applications and goals. (Let’s face it, most developers don’t earn any kudos or credit for the time spent building custom middle layer software that no one sees or hardware solutions that can make customers feel like they are locked in and co-dependent on you. Developers that can deliver easier to adapt, flexible solutions are more likely to earn repeat business and grow their IoT business.) For small to middle market companies, this can provide them with a fast path towards leveraging the business benefits of IoT. Additional benefits include: · Lower overall development and deployment costs · Local control over data and reduced cloud data processing costs · Enhanced data privacy and security · Easier integration with existing systems and applications · Path to expansion as needs change without the need to build more custom hardware or software · Reduced complexity and cost of maintenance and support by using hardware that can be readily purchased off the shelf Want to learn more? Sign up to request a copy of our white paper on how to build an affordable and secure LoRa IoT deployment and to keep up to date on other Machinechat news and articles. Or register for our upcoming LoRaWAN webinar on March 31, 2022 to learn more about the advantages of LoRa and how companies are leveraging ready-to-use bundled IoT solutions to build and deploy their IoT projects faster.

A recent EWeek article predicted that bundled IoT solutions would be on the rise in 2022. As more and more enterprises - from small to large - seek to put their IoT projects into production faster, using these ready-to-use IoT solutions simply makes sense. The Time for Leveraging Bundled IoT Solutions is Now. Today's ready-to-use bundled IoT solutions help address the three key IoT deployment challenges: Technical Complexity. Just getting from idea to a field-ready IoT prototype requires thousands of workhours and multiple technical disciplines. Bundled IoT solutions enable organizations to focus their attention on configuring finished components versus reinventing the wheel. The bottom line: you can build and deploy your IoT project faster without the need for an army (or learning to be an expert in everything). Time to Production and ROI. Time spent on an IoT project is also more time spent to achieve return on investment. For small to middlemarket companies, spending a year to find out that your IoT project isn't optimized and delivering the results you needed can have devastating consequences to your bottom line. (Nowadays even larger companies or traditionally "build it from the ground up" organizations like aerospace/defense are recognizing the value of using "off the shelf" and ready-to-use components to go to market faster.) Pre-integrated bundled IoT solutions - such as Digi-Key's Private LoRaWAN-in-a-Box - allow developers and organizations to build and deploy in days...enabling companies to realize ROI in weeks versus months or years. Cost of Ownership. More and more companies are realizing that the build it yourself (or custom) route can not only be costly in terms of the technical resources and time required - but also in maintaining, updating and expanding these proprietary projects over time. Making a change or expanding an IoT project is much easier with bundled IoT solutions which can be readily purchased and configured to your IoT infrastructure/network (versus custom built and coded). And on-premise all-in-one software solutions like Machinechat's JEDI Pro can further contain your costs by enabling you to control your data locally - without the need for on-going subscription and cloud processing costs. Ready to Learn More? Register for the March 31 Digi-Key Webinar Today! For system integrators, IT, IoT developers and engineers interested in deploying projects with limited budget, time and resources, Machinechat will be co-hosting a webinar on March 31st with our friends at Digi-Key and Seeed Studio. The webinar will cover the following: Advantages of private LoRaWAN in IoT How using ready-to-use hardware and software can eliminate the complexity and costs of commercial IoT project development Technical demonstration and use cases

Temperature, air and water quality, resource consumption, and soil/feed conditions are just some of the elements that must be carefully managed to deliver healthy, quality livestock production outcomes. As the Earth's climate continues to change, it becomes even more important for livestock farmers to be able to adapt quickly. IoT technologies can enable livestock farmers to more accurately assess, monitor and adjust for changing environmental conditions in real-time, as well as identify what trends can help optimize and improve production outcomes. The challenge? How to deploy a secure, affordable IoT project quickly can be a daunting task. Using ready-to-use hardware and IoT software, like Machinechat, system integrators and developers can quickly build and deploy projects in days (versus months) that can allow farmers to collect, monitor, manage and visualize data from sensors deployed in local livestock operations. In our latest use case (developed with our friends at Seeed Studio and makers of the ready-to-use industrial SenseCAP LoRa sensors and gateways), we show how developers can quickly deploy a secure, affordable LoRa IoT solution to monitor and optimize commercial livestock farm conditions that can deliver improved resource utilization, improved livestock health and quality, and reduced labor costs. Want to learn more? Download the use case here.

Today's farmers and growers face a daunting task - supplying a growing (and longer-living) world population while dealing with changing climate and weather patterns. IoT technologies are increasingly seen as a way for the agriculture industry to enhance sustainability and efficiency. The challenge? How to deploy a secure, affordable IoT project quickly can be a daunting task. Using ready-to-use hardware and IoT software, like Machinechat JEDI One, system integrators and developers can quickly build field-ready projects in days (versus months) that can allow farmers to collect, monitor, manage and visualize data from sensors deployed in local greenhouse operations. In our latest use case (developed with our friends at Seeed Studio and makers of the ready-to-use industrial SenseCAP LoRa sensors and gateways), we show how developers can quickly deploy a secure, affordable LoRa IoT solution to monitor and optimize commercial greenhouse operations that can deliver improved resource utilization, increased crop yields, and reduced labor costs. Want to learn more? Download the use case here.

From farms to commercial greenhouses, IoT technologies are increasingly being used to help to enable more efficient resource allocation, reduce water consumption, optimize human labor and increase the quality and quantity of crops. Deploying the right hardware -from sensors to drones to RFID tags- is just the first step; being able to collect, monitor and manage IoT data workflows (and making sure that the right data gets to the right application at the right time) from all these devices is key to harvesting value from any IoT deployment. Agricultural enterprises often consist of a heterogeneous network of sensors and devices that must be able to operate under a wide variety of environmental conditions and monitor everything from soil conditions, light levels, water usage and equipment assets. As the FDA and other agencies around the world move towards requiring farmers to incorporate more technologies to ensure food safety, system integrators and developers will face more complexity in trying to build scalable IoT projects. On-prem IoT software, such as Machinechat’s JEDI One, enables system integrators and developers to quickly deploy data collection, visualization, monitoring, rules and notifications, and local data storage without the need to spend weeks and months developing custom software and applications. More importantly, by normalizing and managing data within the local enterprise, data security is enhanced and cloud data processing costs are reduced. Want to read more? Download our latest environmental monitoring use case by clicking below.

One of the advantages of Machinechat's JEDI One software is how it can speed the rapid prototyping process by enabling engineers, integrators and developers to incorporate all-in-one IoT data collection, visualization, monitoring and alerts into their projects in minutes. (Check out this video to see our Head of Platforms Daryl Miller do this in less than 10 minutes!) When it comes to prototyping, there's nothing more thrilling than being able to deliver a working prototype or POC that your target audience can interact with and understand intuitively. In business, having a prototype that looks and works like a pilot ready product can be the key difference in whether your idea is embraced with excitement (and adopted)...or with "What's that?" or "How's this going to work?" Recently, we were thrilled to hear about how an engineer at a US national laboratory used our software and ready-to-use IoT hardware components (including some cool parts from our friends at SparkFun Electronics) to rapidly build a low cost, modular solution for testing flight and space equipment. The video above provides a quick overview of the use case. At Machinechat, we're driven by the vision of making the promise of IoT accessible to everyone - whether it is an engineer with an idea for a new product or innovation, a system integrator who is trying to enable their customers to deploy quickly IoT projects or a maker looking to build their own solution. If you can dream it, our software can help you deliver a professional and polished prototype in minutes (versus months). Learn more about our products here. Looking for some inspiration or ideas? Check out our Help Center.

Digital transformation across industries has created a boom in IoT devices. More than ever, embedded device and equipment product managers are under pressure to launch smart or connected products to grow their market share or at least maintain their market position. This sudden demand for workforce trained in IoT technologies has created the IoT skills gap. While this presents a significant opportunity for students entering the industry, teaching IoT can provide significant complexities for educators. The #1 way to teach students IoT more easily and impactfully starts with: 1. Teaching IoT sooner rather than later Most IoT projects are a complex integration of sensors, communication networks, hardware, software and in many cases, the cloud. Introducing students to an IoT curriculum early enables them to select the right combination of courses to give them a strong foundation – as well as developing an appreciation for how to integrate the practical applications being taught in the classroom. 2. Spending more time on core concepts with easy-to-use, low-code software Nothing excites students more than seeing their projects coming to life quickly and reliably. While sensors and hardware platforms are largely standardized and readily available, software presents a formidable challenge. Layers of complex software must be developed and integrated for collecting, visualizing, monitoring, and reporting data. More recently low-code software applications such as Machinechat’s JEDI One replace coding with configuration, slashing weeks or months of development time and the distraction away from core curriculum. Finally, avoid trapping your students with software built on domain specific languages that have limited applications or production value in the real world. 3. Encouraging students to solve real world problems with IoT IoT is where the physical world meets the digital world. Sensors and actuators help software monitor and manage the physical world. Industries that leverage IoT-based technologies are benefiting from significant cost reductions, improved productivities, and enhanced customer experience. Using IoT to solve real world problems exposes students to industries as well as reinforces business concepts like cost, productivity, and customer success. 4. Extending laboratory IoT projects to professional proof-of-concept solutions Turning laboratory IoT projects into professional proof-of-concept solutions can be very rewarding to students, faculty and department. Leveraging commercial ready-to-use products and kits, like Digi-Key’s IoT QuickStart Kit for Environmental Monitoring, educators can enable students to go from lab projects to professional proof of concepts quickly and provide them with a foundation for extending learning beyond the classroom. Machinechat’s JEDI One software makes it easy for students to start with as little as one sensor and scale that up to multiple distributed sensors with professional data visualization, monitoring and notifications. 5. Organizing field days to connect students to industry leaders - and enabling them to get real-world feedback IoT field days are a perfect way for students, faculty, and departments to showcase their field-ready proof-of-concepts to the industry and the world to raise awareness, create opportunities for students and potential research funding. The thrill that comes from an IoT solution going from a lab project to an industry success story cannot be stated in simple words. To learn more on how to jumpstart students on building IoT projects, join us on Monday, July 26, 2021, for Digi-Key's Excellence in Engineering Education workshop “Jumpstart IoT Rapid Prototypes and Data Acquisition Projects in Less Than 30 Minutes”. Sign up here.

IoT is at a critical tipping point but with anywhere from 30-60% of IoT projects failing at the proof-of-concept and prototype stage and nearly one-fourth of IoT projects failing to make it to production or deployment, developing an IoT project is not for the faint of heart. The top reasons why IoT projects fail have nothing to do with whether an idea is viable or can deliver good business value. Commercial applications, such as environmental monitoring or asset tracking, have already demonstrated the ability to deliver substantial ROI. And the number of use cases and IoT solutions that can exist in these application verticals is virtually limitless. Most IoT projects fail to make it past the prototype phase due to one or more of the following: Lack of technical expertise and resources Running out of time Running out of money or high cost of development The First Step to a Successful IoT Project: Build a Field-Ready Prototype or Proof of Concept Most IoT ideas start out as concepts to be built by a small team of development engineers or system integrators. A prototype is often built with a combination of an embedded single board computer (or a development kit), connectivity and a set of sensors, most of which can be purchased off-the-shelf and relatively inexpensively. The tricky part for most IoT projects is in the amount of software development and hardware firmware customization that must occur to demonstrate the feasibility of the project and its ability to be connected to a real-world environment. Many IoT projects are closely tied to a company or customer’s internal operation metrics and outcomes. This often results in software having to be custom developed. And with a lack of standardization across sensors and devices, this means every project can feel like having to reinvent the wheel. IoT software applications require multiple components, including: Network protocol processing Multi-threaded servers Databases Diagnostics Dashboards User interfaces The complexity of building IoT software often results in system integrators and developers building early stage prototypes that are either Unable to be test-driven by the customer; or Utilize open source software, such as NodeRed, that can create a long-term headache for key constituencies (such as IT and Ops) when it comes to scalability, on-going maintenance and support due to the thousands of dependencies. As my mentor used to say: presentation is everything. For developers and system integrators, the key to a prototype that sells is one that looks, feels and operates like it is ready to go and inspires your customer or target audience to engage with the project. The Solution: Ready-to-Use, Cost-Effective IoT Data Management Software Developing custom IoT software can take a team of multi-disciplinary engineers months to finish. Ready-to-use IoT software can help developers and system integrators get to a field-ready prototype much faster and allow your customer to experience the project before investing thousands of hours in development. The advantages of ready-to-use IoT software, like Machinechat’s JEDI One, include: Easy-to-configure data collectors and custom plug-ins allow developers to extract data from any device or sensor in minutes – without the need to change native protocols or write custom firmware. This can also be helpful in the early prototyping phases, when your team may be looking at multiple options for qualifying the right sensor or embedded devices for your project. Drag-and-drop data and system view dashboards enable developers – and customers – to visualize data in a variety of scenarios with a few mouse clicks. Configurable smart on-premise data storage allows customers and developers to have full control over their data – and minimizes cloud hosting costs. This can be especially critical in the early stages of an IoT project. Fully integrated MQTT broker that allows your team to ingest and visualize MQTT information in minutes - without the need for your network to point to a cloud hosted solution. Whether your team is prototyping sensors on a PC or Mac, or developing a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone-based IoT solution, Machinechat's JEDI One IoT data management software allows you to simplify the POC process - and present a field-ready prototype that will engage and excite your customer and key constituencies.

For most engineers, developers and system integrators, developing and deploying an IoT project can be akin to building a house from scratch – by yourself. One where you need to BYIoT (Bring Your IoT) and establish an “IoT-ready” state before you can leverage the vast array of IoT cloud services, tools and platforms. It feels like being told that you can build your house in a great neighborhood and with a master general contractor – but only if you first harvest the lumber, build the pipes and fixtures, supply the labor, get the permits, and pre-assemble all the components first yourself. For many teams, this can translate to spending significant weeks and months (and money) custom building an integrated path between your devices, sensors, network and the cloud. For many enterprises, this “very rough” first mile is where many IoT projects fail – running out of time, budget and resources. It is also the most critical in defining: · What machines, sensors and devices can be networked and how future machine applications can be integrated into the network; · What data needs to be pushed to the Cloud and data that must be integrated with on-prem business applications; · What data must be acted upon immediately and locally; · What data needs to be cached or stored locally and for how long; and · How to minimize rip and replace of existing enterprise investments When done right, a robust pre-cloud deployment model can reduce complexity, cost and put enterprises quickly on the path to positive ROI from their IoT investments. Other benefits include:, · Establish an adaptable infrastructure for incorporating future IoT integrations and deployments · Maximize data security, privacy and compliance by keeping data storage on-prem and/or in a private cloud · Reduce costs and complexity by only sending necessary and pre-processed data to line-of-business applications Simplify and Accelerate First Mile Deployment with the Right Software To accelerate IoT projects, developers and system integrators should leverage ready-to-use IoT software applications that are · Easy to deploy; · Easy to configure and maintain; and · Able to run as a service locally or in a private cloud without the need for expensive proprietary hardware platforms Machinechat JEDI is an all-in-one single-binary IoT data management software with zero external dependencies that you can run on servers, PCs, Macs, network gateways, virtual machines and even on a Raspberry Pi or a BeagleBone. Ready to learn more? Click here to learn how JEDI One can enable you to create a field-ready IoT POC in minutes, not months.

Developers and system integrators are faced with a multitude of options when it comes to collecting, monitoring, directing and storing data from their IoT projects. Most of these can be categorized into two specific architectures, on-prem or cloud-native. Pick the wrong one and your project costs can quickly skyrocket in a matter of days or weeks. Below we compare both architectures, as well as how and when developers and system integrators should consider deploying these options. On-Prem: Start Here First. You’ve got an IoT project idea but you aren’t yet ready to commit tens of thousands of dollars in a cloud-native IoT solution. Nowadays it can seem like IoT and cloud are synonymous but the last thing you want to do is kill your budget, resources and weeks of engineering time by going to the cloud too quickly. On-prem is perfect for: IoT projects that are in the early development or POC stages Small to mid-sized deployments Deployments involving enterprises where data privacy and control are important concerns Deployments that need more than what one-size-fits-all IoT cloud platforms offer Deployments that desire control over when and how IoT software upgrades are applied Deployments involving legacy or existing devices that cannot be connected to the Internet or public clouds due to security concerns Building a solid on-prem IoT infrastructure first can ensure faster ROIs and better performance when your IoT project deployment is ready to move to a cloud-native architectures by: Establishing an adaptable and robust infrastructure that ensures your connected machine network is “IoT ready” Identifying what data needs to stay local and what needs to be sent to the cloud Allowing business teams to clearly understand ROI benefits before investing in the additional technical resources and time required for a cloud-native rollout Cloud-Native: When Your IoT Project Is Ready to Scale As IoT projects start to scale to multiple sites or thousands of devices, it makes sense for developers to look at cloud-native architecture. Cloud-native architecture is perfect for: Your project needs to scale to thousands of devices across many different sites Involves deployments that necessitate sending all device data to the cloud to leverage tens to hundreds of servers for data processing You are willing and able to invest in time, budget and development resources to build a cloud-native solution Your application and use case is not sensitive to technology, features, data retention, privacy and government policy changes by the cloud service provider that may be beyond your control For most enterprises, transitioning your IoT project to a cloud-native model involves deploying a set of on-prem and pre-cloud IoT services to: Convert and normalize protocols and data formats to comply with the cloud platform provider’s specifications before you can send any data to the cloud Label and tag data streams Aggregate data to minimize bandwidth costs Filter data to comply with enterprise and government data privacy regulations Ready-to-use IoT edgeware solutions, like Machinechat’s JEDI One, can provide a perfect solution for developers and system integrators seeking to deploy field-ready POCs, on-prem IoT solutions or pre-cloud IoT services quickly. A single software binary with no external dependencies to maintain, JEDI One can be deployed on an embedded system, server or virtual machine in your enterprise’s private cloud. Pre-configured and ready-to-use HTTP, TCP-CSV, MQTT broker and custom data collectors make integrating any sensor or device a task that takes minutes versus days. After that, establishing data visualization, monitoring, rules-based notifications, alerts and notifications is as easy as using your mouse (in other words, zero coding). Execute local action scripts in any programming language. More importantly, you control what data you store, where it is stored and for how long. Want to learn more about how to simplify and accelerate your IoT project? Read our blog on BYIoT (Bring Your IoT) and the first critical mile in making your deployment "IoT ready."