The following are news announcements made this week:
PRESS RELEASE:
UNICOM Global Releases New Version of solidDB In-memory Database With Enhanced Support for Internet of Things
UNICOM Systems, Inc. has released solidDB v. 101, the latest version of the powerful, portable in-memory relational database the company acquired from IBM in 2014. solidDB v. 101 includes new features that provide enhanced support for Internet of Things (IoT) applications including a fast, reliable, unintrusive way of replicating data between multiple IoT appliances. New support for geohashing allows IoT and mobile applications to process geo location data faster.
SolidDB’s new advanced approach to replicating data between multiple database nodes enhances horizontal scalability and allows for faster data collection by multiple IoT appliances.
“SolidDB’s reliability and lightweight design make it ideal for running on portable devices, which require a database with a minimal overhead that can just look after itself, without administrator involvement. Version 101 enhances these core strengths. Data can be gathered and replicated across multiple geographically distributed IoT appliances which run the solidDB database while maintaining high availability and minimizing latency – a must for any IoT applications,” explained Jarmo Ruuth, the Chief Architect of solidDB.
The new replication capability (called CREP) allows for a multi-node, asynchronously replicating system of multiple databases that can be configured to be bi-directional, with full conflict resolution. The system uses log-based replication to ensure that it does not consume excessive CPU or network resources, while replicating all rows written to a single solidDB instance to all replication targets. This allows for replication to happen in the background without impacting normal database performance.
Based on the principle of ‘maintenance free operation’, CREP avoids error situations and eliminates the need for administrator intervention. This architectural approach enables multiple replication topologies for disaster recovery, multiple replica databases and many other use cases.
The new Geohash function provides the capability to calculate a one-dimensional hash value from a multidimensional set of coordinates. The benefit of creating an index based on the geohash value provides more selective queries based on that index, rather than on a coordinate-based index with multiple dimensions. This increases efficiency and enables mobile or IoT applications to process location information faster, as Jarmo Ruuth explains:
“Using geohashing allows applications to quickly pinpoint the location of mobile phones or other devices. This is useful for organizations that want to target specific marketing offers or promotions to mobile users while they are at a particular location, for example. It could also be used by a mobile network operator to send emergency notifications to users within a specific geographical area, perhaps to warn them in the event of a terror threat. The ability to react immediately is essential when you are sending thousands or even millions of time-critical messages.”
A new REST API for solidDB v.101 opens up a new world of capabilities for storing and retrieving data, especially for IoT solutions. The API enables access to the solidDB SQL interface from any language that supports the HTTP (and HTTPS) protocol. This extends the access from current ODBC and JDBC interfaces to virtually any modern programming language where HTTP connections are widely used.
For enhanced security, a new certificate-based authentication feature has also been added. The client credentials are stored in an encrypted file, which can also contain other information, such as client IP-address and client executable, to limit user access; this new feature can be used with all communication protocols.
The new solidDB dashboard now provides a simple, at-a-glance view for monitoring server performance, including example monitoring views. There is also the option for users to add their own new sets of performance monitoring (pmon) data collections.
“As with every release, the objective is to include enhancements that our customers expect, with real effects on performance, usability and overall product quality. This release is the second solidDB version under UNICOM stewardship and we are proud to implement new features that have been in the plans for years,” said Jarmo Ruuth.
PRESS RELEASE:
Kerlink Plans for IoT Expansion in United States and Asia
Kerlink (ALKLK—FR0013156007), a specialist and global leader in network solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), said proceeds from its recent stock offering – the second one in less than a year – will help accelerate the company’s expansion in the U.S. and Asia.
Kerlink is a fast-growing company and founding board member of the LoRa AllianceTM. Its suite of IoT equipment, software and services is helping to fuel the rapid global adoption of LoRaWANTM technology, which enables the cost-savings and energy-efficiency features required for connecting billions of devices to the IoT. Kerlink helps its customers in Europe and Asia design, plan, install and manage IoT networks for the full range of smart Internet of Things applications, such as fleet management, asset tracking, safety & security, parking, lighting, air-quality monitoring and water-and-electricity metering.
Since 2013, the company’s compound average annual growth rate has exceeded 50 percent. Revenue grew more than 90 percent in fiscal 2016 compared to the previous year. Based on this market response, Kerlink is accelerating its expansion into Asia and North America, supported by its subsidiaries based in Singapore and Chicago.
Less than a year after its initial public offering in May 2016 that raised $11.4 million, the company launched a second offering on April 21, which was oversubscribed. The company announced on May 12 that the offer raised an additional $22.9 million.
William Gouesbet, co-founder and Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Kerlink, said the success of the recent stock issue highlights investor confidence in the company’s growth strategy and its combination of network hardware, software and professional services. The company targets on the one hand large telecom operators that want to complement their broadband services with a dedicated cost-efficient, energy-saving and narrowband IoT network, and on the other hand smart cities or individual companies that want to deploy and operate their own IoT networks for smart value-added applications.
“Kerlink’s success in the stock market stems from the growing demand for our comprehensive Internet of Things solutions, which address a broad and deep market sector,” Gouesbet said. “With more than 70 projects underway worldwide, the take-off of our market is confirmed and opportunities must be rapidly seized.”
“U.S. companies and smart cities are sophisticated evaluators of available IoT network offerings,” said Yannick Delibie, Kerlink’s co-founder, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer and President of Kerlink Inc., the U.S. subsidiary. “They want future-proof, reliable and scalable turnkey solutions that enable rapid roll out and simple operation of their IoT networks, and Kerlink has proven in Europe and Asia that we can readily meet that demand.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Tekelek Partners With Paygo Smart-Tank Technologies for Intelligent Monitoring and Management of Fuel Inventories, Procurement
Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government agency for the promotion of international trade by Irish companies, has announced a partnership between electronic monitoring based Tekelek and fuel technology based Paygo for business development in their respective markets. The agreement, announced during an Enterprise Ireland Trade Mission led by Minister Sean Canney TD, allows both organizations to capitalize on advances and economies in IoT technologies to provide greater intelligence on management and procurement of industrial fuels.
Tekelek are delighted to announce securing an order for $1.4m with Paygo to serve the US and Canadian markets. In parallel, Tekelek is now developing an intrinsically safe sensor to facilitate the expansion of Paygo’s service offering. Tekelek look forward to building a continued partnership with Paygo. Minister Canney welcomed the announcement from Clare-based Tekelek and wished them well with their growth plans for North America.
“This agreement allows Tekelek and Paygo to make the most of a timely opportunity, effectively scaling in new territories,” said Leo McAdams, International Sales and Partnering Manager, at Enterprise Ireland. “We are very pleased to facilitate and support international partnerships between Irish and Canadian businesses as they each seek to develop business in new ways. The agreement between Paygo and Tekelek presents an exciting opportunity for growth, and Enterprise Ireland will continue to support Tekelek’s expansion in Canada.”
Founded in 1995, Tekelek has established a strong European market with a range of tank monitor technologies including the Gremlin Tank Monitor. Tekelek also specializes in control based design and manufacturing solutions. These are collaborative and customized products that pride themselves on meeting environmental highly regulated environmental standards. Tekelek’s niche is delivering product requirements where innovation and flexibility is key.
“IoT in industrial applications is facilitating smarter decision-making and leaner, more agile businesses,” Oliver McCarthy, General Manager, Tekelek said. “We’re very excited to apply this thinking and our technology to the industrial fuels market-place and we’re similarly pleased to partner with an organization of Paygo’s caliber to bring our technologies to the North America market.”
Phil Baratz, CEO Paygo, said “We at Paygo are delighted to be associated with Tekelek. Having completed a rigorous research and development process, it is great to introduce the Gremlin tank monitor to our customers in Canada and the United States. We see it as strengthening our current range of products and services.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Tactical Network Solutions Issues Sample IoT Security Report Showing Backdoors in Connected Device
The extremely high number of connected devices rapidly coming to market has consumers and manufacturers excited. The new IoT devices often include advancements, more effective data collection and greater ease of use. But, when the devices are not built securely, they also bring unnecessary exposure, vulnerabilities, and danger.
To support IoT device manufacturers and others, Tactical Network Solutions (TNS) has issued a sample report that uncovers security flaws in a connected device. The 17-page report illustrates firmware vulnerabilities including hidden backdoor accounts, private security keys and 3rd party library vulnerabilities.
The report was produced with data gathered from Centrifuge, the custom-built IoT Security Platform, which automatically reverse engineers compiled firmware images to uncover security holes. Centrifuge extracts the complete root filesystems within the firmware images, deconstructs each file down to the bytecode level and provides reporting on vulnerable functions calls. This process gives IoT device manufacturers a bird’s eye view into potentially dangerous and exploitable security issues on their devices.
As the IoT device market rapidly expands, companies will continue to automate as much of the firmware evaluation process as possible. TNS brings complete solutions to manufacturers who seek accurate and timely security evaluations of connected devices. Contact TNS for further information about the report.
PRESS RELEASE:
PTC Conference Exhibits WISER Systems Technology; WISER Places First in Pitch Contest for Industrial IoT
An Industrial IoT demonstration of WISER Systems’ Locator technology was featured in live tracking mode May 22-25 in Boston, MA, at LiveWorx 2017, an exclusive 4-day technology conference for PTC partners, sponsors, and presenters.
PTC, provider of the leading IoT platform Thingworx, has provided computer software and services in the 30+ years since its inception. It is the first leading IoT platform provider to integrate WISER’s active mesh Real Time Locating System (RTLS) into its product offering.
LiveWorx 2017, which featured PTC CEO and President Jim Heppelmann as a keynote speaker, brought numerous PTC partners together to exhibit and discuss new IoT applications. As part of the event, ThingWorx Integrator and WISER partner Kalyspo demonstrated a live demo of a new tool tracking application for the Aerospace industry. This IoT tracking solution is anchored by WISER’s mesh network Locator hardware and software. Kalypso created a video featuring WISER’s RTLS in action and demonstrating the technology in a bin tracking application with an industrial customer. The video is available here: Practical IoT for Industrial Manufacturers.
“This was a big deal for us,” WISER CEO Dr. Elaine C. Rideout commented. “The fact that at this early stage we have been adopted by some of the biggest players in IoT is both humbling and exhilarating. The LiveWorx show was a great opportunity to meet some of the many high-quality PTC partners.” PTC and its partner companies serve global customers in government and aerospace, the automotive industry, retail, manufacturing, and electronics, among other industries.
In addition, while showcasing its technology at IoT World 2017 last month, WISER Systems, Inc. took first place in the Conference’s Pitch Competition for Industrial IoT, and placed in the top six of all pitching companies.
“This event allowed us to show what we can do to a lot of big players in the IoT and other industrial technology fields,” said Dr. Elaine C. Rideout, CEO of WISER Systems. “And winning the Industrial IoT category was such an honor, given all the other impressive entries—I’m so proud of our amazing team.”
IoT World is the largest Internet of Things conference in the world, with over 11,000 IoT world leaders in attendance this year from organizations such as Amazon, Google, Apple, the United States Department of Defense, NASA, Boeing, and Facebook. As part of the conference WISER Solutions Engineer Logan Maxwell demonstrated the company’s technical capabilities by live-tracking a tagged mascot while conference participants moved the mascot around the convention center.
In addition to exhibiting at IoT World, WISER showcased its RRLT solution at two other major industry events during the month of May—RFID Journal LIVE! In Phoenix, AZ, and LiveWorx 2017 in Boston, MA. At RFID Journal LIVE! WISER presented more interactive demos of its real-time tracking capabilities, and at the LiveWorx event WISER and its partner Kalypso presented an industrial tracking solution using RRLT technology. These conferences featured exhibitions and presentations from global experts in manufacturing, defense and aerospace, healthcare and pharmaceutical technology, and other industries relying increasingly on IoT solutions.
“It was exciting to showcase our technology live on the floor to potential customers and partners,” Maxwell said. “We’ve spent a long time in development to make sure our technology is the best in every metric, and it was very rewarding to see people’s reactions during a live demonstration. These conferences are great because they get decision-makers from different industry verticals in the same room.”
PRESS RELEASE:
A.M. BestTV Episode Examines Internet of Things Breaches
In this A.M.BestTV episode, a panel of risk and technology experts examine the impact of connected devices and how breaches and network failures could lead to multibillion-dollar losses. Click here to view the entire program. The panelists discussed how the Internet of Things (IOT) represents opportunities for insurance companies and how it is rife with challenges.
“Insurers are becoming really excited about autonomous vehicles,” said Garin Pace, cyber product leader, American International Group, Inc. “When you take into consideration the volume of accidents that are taking place and the amount of payouts insurance companies are distributing, you can really see the potential these vehicles have to transform the insurance market..”
Martin Frappolli, senior director of knowledge resources, The Institutes, said he believes the IOT will enhance the level of efficiency in organizations; however, it does exposure them to cyber risk. “Although there are cyber exposures involved with the IOT, organizations face a lot of pressure to stay competitive, and the only way they can accomplish this is to increase their organization’s efficiency,” he said.
This entire webinar, titled, “My Refrigerator Just Boiled the Milk: Cyber Risk and the Internet of Things,” can be viewed at http://www.ambest.com/webinars/cyber_risk17. Other people that appear in this episode: Marie Taylor, product manager director, CyberScout; and Scott Stransky, assistant vice president, AIR Worldwide.
PRESS RELEASE:
Connecthings, Current Partner on Industrial Internet Platform for Smart Cities
Connecthings, operator of the largest global network of beacons in public spaces (130,000+), has announced its partnership with Current, powered by GE (NYSE:GE) to encourage the use of the Intelligent Environments platform as a living laboratory to enable economic growth and enhance the quality of life. The platform allows companies and the local tech community to harness the power of the Industrial Internet and develop new applications to solve city challenges and engage with citizens.
Founded in 2007, Connecthings has been transforming passive points of contact and locations including street furniture, train stations, airports and more into smart, connected objects communicating with the smartphones of citizens and visitors alike. Connecthings’ Internet of Public Things platform contextualizes the beacon network to send the right information at the right time to mobile users—on all or parts of the beacon network, worldwide. Any mobile application can easily plug onto the beacon network and engage with their users while on the move.
“We are very proud to join Current, powered by GE’s vibrant ecosystem of innovative companies,” says Laetitia Gazel Anthoine, CEO & Founder, Connecthings. “With our new generation of mobile engagement powered by smart city physical networks, mobile application users access real-time, contextualized information through their usual apps; the mobile apps publishers can access data usage across smart city environments. Together with Current, Connecthings is paving the way for new and exciting ways to catalyze the energy sector.”
Current, which specializes in creating intelligent environments for commercial buildings and cities, is partnering up with city leaders to turn their ubiquitous lighting footprint into a digital infrastructure enabled by CityIQ—transforming a city lighting infrastructure into an all-knowing, data intelligence network.
“With the ever-expanding ecosystem of partners and the innovative developer community, thousands of applications can be built to drive desired outcomes for cities. From reducing traffic congestion, increasing pedestrian safety, driving new economic development and job creation to providing citywide Wi-Fi connections, innovation is at the core of who we are—and what we do. Together with Connecthings, we will usher in a new digital frontier, giving cities and citizens alike the benefits of a connected city,” says Jim Benson, GM Strategic Alliances and Marketing, Current by GE.