Technical Articles
Smart appliances that connect with mobile phones, voice assistants and other systems can enhance a manufacturer’s revenues and help differentiate its products in a crowded consumer marketplace.
What if a vacuum cleaner could operate more like a digital mapping system—not in what it does, but in how well it knows its user? This closer relationship makes for a better product and better vendor.
Do all Internet of Things (IoT) platforms do the same thing? Of course not, but it’s difficult for customers to tell them apart when they all claim to do the same thing. This article offers enterprise leaders five criteria for how to choose an IoT platform and service provider that fits their needs.
The Internet of Things (IoT) involves a number of steps and complexities, each with multiple design decisions and trade-offs. For most connected devices, the first step is enabling connectivity between the physical object—the IoT ‘thing’—and the Internet, using an embedded wireless IoT module.
You know the old adage, “You have to walk before you can run?” The Internet of Things (IoT) has a new adage: “You need edge management before you can leap into edge processing.” Edge computing has topped lists of IoT trends for the past few years, and for good reason.
It’s easy to focus on the transformational potential promised by Internet of Things (IoT) data, applications, and services. After all, the excitement of IoT-enabled digital business transformation happens at the 10,000-foot level.
Internet of Things (IoT) developers have a choice of approaches for creating connectivity to IoT clouds, each with different advantages and trade-offs. How can you tell which option is the best one?
IoT solutions encompass a long list of diverse technologies, including hardware, software, cloud, security, mobile applications, and big-data analytics. To create a platform, manufacturers need to master all these IoT technologies—and, navigate among their complex interactions.
Unless you’ve already designed, built, and marketed a connected IoT product, it’s almost impossible to imagine the intricacies that will arise. That’s because IoT interconnectedness—and the multilayered implications of that interconnectedness—affect even the most mundane-seeming product decisions.
While it's impossible to predict with certainty the trajectory of any evolving technology—after all, none of us has a crystal ball to gaze into the future—here are a few thoughts about where the IoT market might be headed, based on an online survey that Ayla Networks conducted in March 2017.
Creating a connected HVAC product for the smart home is not as simple as embedding a wireless chip or adding a sensor. Designing IoT-enabled smart home HVAC products requires consideration of everything from network security to application software design, as well as how to budget for, scale, distribute and future-proof these products.
Designing IoT Mobile Apps for Smart Appliances by Oliver Cockcroft, Product Architect, Ayla Networks
From the perspective of those using smart home appliances, the mobile app that controls the appliance is the product. Consumers judge smart products—meaning connected appliances that are part of the Internet of Things (IoT)—largely on the quality of their mobile apps. Grasping this simple but difficult truth means that manufacturers of smart appliances need to make a fundamental shift in perspective in how they design, manufacture, and even support their offerings.
Opinion: What makes a smart home truly smart? By Oliver Cockcroft, Product Architect, Ayla Networks
What makes a smart home smart? An increasing number of companies want to know the answer to that question. According to a recent report from Harbor Research, “the smart home market is gaining substantial momentum, with an estimated 900 million smart devices existing in households across the world today."
Get Smart About Smart Home Gateways by Justin Ruiz, Product Marketing Manager, Ayla Networks
Now that manufacturers of smart home products are getting a better handle on how to connect products to the Internet of Things (IoT), they need to focus on how their products will connect and interoperate with lots of other smart home products.
Hear the Future: IoT Voice Control by Oliver Cockcroft, Product Architect, Ayla Networks
Topping market research firm Parks Associates’ list of Top 10 Consumer IoT Trends in 2017 is this: Voice control is vying to become the primary user interface for the smart home and connected lifestyle.
The concept of home systems “working together” is a fundamental expectation of the Internet of Things. Consumers assume that connected devices in their smart homes will work together easily and automatically, regardless of the manufacturer, and without needing to have specialized technology skills to make them work.
For manufacturers of connected products, Internet of Things (IoT) scalability means exploring a vast new wilderness. The IoT is brand new, and no one knows exactly how thousands or millions or billions of connected products will work — or not — as their numbers and interconnections multiply.
As the world economy continues to globalize, large manufacturing and technology companies from different countries increasingly find themselves aggressively competing against one another. This is very much the case between the United States and China, especially as Chinese manufacturing companies and consumer internet services seek to extend their brands internationally.
When manufacturers look at one of their smart-home products for the Internet of Things (IoT), they see the complete product and all its capabilities—and probably view the mobile app as almost an afterthought.
7 Hurdles in IoT Mobile App Development by Daniel Myers, Director of Software, Ayla Networks
For manufacturers interested in developing connected products for the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile app development represents entirely new and unknown territory. And even experienced mobile app developers find that the IoT poses all kinds of new challenges.
The 7 Biggest Mistakes Manufacturers Make by Ayla Networks
To help you take a smoother path to your connected products - and to prevent a “Fire, Aim, Ready” approach - here are the 7 biggest mistakes manufacturers make when launching into the IoT market, and how to avoid them.
The Internet of Things (IoT) isn’t new technology, but rather the application of well-known technologies to new situations and use cases. For that reason, it would be easy to assume that creating a connected product isn’t so difficult. That assumption would be very, very wrong.
When designing products and systems for the Internet of Things (IoT), manufacturers often tend to focus on only a single aspect of the process: embedding wireless communications, or establishing a cloud connection, or writing web or mobile-based software to control an IoT device.
Why Should a Water Heater Be Smart? By Vinay Malekal, Solutions Engineer Manager, Ayla Networks
Smart water heaters can save energy in a number of ways. They can allow for easier variable control by consumers, who could, for instance, lower the water heater's temperature during times when no one is in the home.
Building in Security from the Start by Adrian Caceres, CTO, and VP of Engineering, Ayla Networks
The benefits associated with the IoT derive from greater connectivity, but without proper security mechanism, the entire connect pathway is vulnerable.
Designing Across the Full IoT Spectrum by Adrian Caceres, CTO, and VP of Engineering, Ayla Networks
When designing products and systems for the IoT, manufacturers often tend to focus on only a single aspect of the process: embedding wireless communications or establishing a cloud connection, or writing web- or mobile-based software to control and IIot device.
Finding the Onramp to the IoT by David Friedman, CEO, Ayla Networks
It seems like every few days, yet another company makes an announcement about the Internet of Things (IoT). One of the latest biggies was Amazon Web Services (AWS), which announced a number of new services at the AWS: Reinvent show in Las Vegas. The new services have interesting names such as QuickSight, Kinesis Firehose, Snowball and something called AWS IoT.
From our heartbeats to our genomes, anything about our bodies that can be measured can generate data. As the Internet of Things (IoT) kicks into high gear, vast networks of connected devices can receive and share sensor-enabled data. Many of these devices fall into the realm of health or medical care, ushering in a new era of personalized health care.
IoT Analytics is a Different Breed of Analytics By David Friedman, CEO, Ayla Networks
Analytics purpose-built for the IoT and tied to IoT platform technology is the only practical way to mine the IoT data.
Designing and manufacturing connected products for the IoT requires a completely different mindset than making traditional, static products. Manufacturers need tools to easily provide expertise in areas previously unfamiliar, starting with embedded design and networking to the development of full-featured mobile apps.
Get To Know The Four Types Of Data In The Internet Of Things by David Friedman, CEO, Ayla Networks
One of the most significant benefits of the Internet of Things is the fact that it will vastly expand our ability to monitor and measure things taking place the real world.
How Do You Say ‘IoT’ In Chinese? By Dave Friedman, CEO, Ayla Networks
We in Silicon Valley tend to think that the world of technology revolves around us. We expect innovations to emerge here first and then radiate to the rest of the world. But the truth is that there’s a big wide world out there, and technology innovation is happening all over. Nowhere is that more true than in China.
An End-to-End Approach is Needed for IoT Device Security by Vish Pai, Product Manager, Ayla Networks
Most of the "things" connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) are produced companies not accustomed to thinking in terms of connectivity. These manufacturers are experts in water heaters or door locks or coffee makers, but they probably don't know what a really good connected water heater or door lock or coffee maker should be. And they certainly haven't had to worry about the kinds of security threats that come with IoT connectivity.