The Technology Leg of the IoT Stool

With embedded systems, M2M, and cloud having been around for quite some time, one of the most common questions that I get from those in the tech industry and outside of IoT is: why IoT now? The answer to this question lies with the three-legged stool metaphor.  In order to enable IoT, all three legs must be in place: technology, scale, and price. Today I will focus on the technology leg of the stool because we have an exciting new development on this front.

From edge to cloud, an IoT deployment requires a broad and sophisticated technology stack. This technology stack extends from the silicon on the edge, through the embedded operating system and up to the cloud. What’s interesting and challenging about the IoT technology stack is that the world of embedded systems and cloud technologies intersect. Usually these worlds are abstracted away, but IoT requires that a company maintain core competencies in real-time operating systems in resource constrained environments, as well as cloud technologies and the disparate set of challenges.

In order to accelerate Wind River’s delivery of an edge management solution, and maintain a competitive edge in all segments of the IoT stack, we have entered into a partnership with Axeda to integrate the Axeda Machine Cloud with the Wind River operating systems. This includes Wind River Linux, VxWorks, and Wind River Intelligent Device Platform. By combining Wind River’s leadership in embedded operating systems and Axeda’s leadership in IoT cloud technology, we can offer unprecedented level of integration in the IoT technology stack. This pre-integrated technology stack will serve as a platform for Wind River customers to accelerate their own IoT product timelines.

Out at the edge, Wind River plays a critical role as an integral part of Intel^® Gateway Solutions for the Internet of Things. On the cloud side we are looking at how we can enhance the northbound story of extensibility and connecting to analytics solutions. This subset of IoT initiatives will be further enhanced by our continued work on the IoT front…stay tuned!