PRESS RELEASE:
InfluxData Offers IoT Monitoring With Visualization Features
InfluxData, the modern open source platform built from the ground up for metrics and events, is excited to announce a common administrative UI and visualization experience across the InfluxEnterprise and open source platforms to empower developers to build next-generation monitoring, analytics, and IoT applications faster and easier.
“Traditional monitoring solutions are siloed and being stretched to breaking point because they can’t handle the diversity and volume of metrics and events,” said Evan Kaplan, CEO, InfluxData. “We fundamentally believe that a unified monitoring layer purpose-built for all metrics and events, from sensors to microservices, is key to identifying patterns, controlling complex systems, and turning insight into action.” The InfluxData platform is built on the open source projects—Telegraf, InfluxDB, Chronograf, and Kapacitor, often referred to as the TICK stack.
With this release, Chronograf 1.3.0 now: delivers rapid time to value for developers using Telegraf for metrics and events collection through pre-built visualizations for monitoring and data exploration; provides easy-to-use administrative capabilities including database creation and user management for InfluxDB; simplifies creation of custom alerting providing anomaly detection, and action frameworks for faster business value leveraging capabilities of Kapacitor; and implements support for both open source TICK projects and InfluxEnterprise.
“Platform administrators will love how easily they can set up databases, user profiles and alerting capabilities through a highly optimized user experience,” said Tim Hall, VP of Products, InfluxData. “This is a continuation of our promise to build an application that’s easy to learn and quick to implement.”
Spiio, the leader in understanding greenery performance from data analytics, uses InfluxData to power a digital remote irrigation monitoring solution. “We are making decisions based on the information we get from our sensors,” said Chris Thorup, Co-Founder, Spiio. “With Chronograf visualizing the TICK stack information, we are able to easily see the data that allows us to monitor our plants for greener cities.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Ingenu, Leverege Partner to Provide Integrated Development Platform for RPMA
Ingenu Inc., the company that delivers purpose-built IoT connectivity, and Leverege, developers of a suite of cloud-based IoT products, has announced the availability of an integrated development platform for RPMA (Random Phase Multiple Access) application development. The platform will provide application developers with a simple user interface (UI) to view, manage and operate application data which will simplify development and greatly accelerate time to market of IoT (Internet of Things) applications.
“Development of IoT applications is progressing at lightning speed, and time to market is essential,” said Eric Conn, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Leverege. “Our expertise in delivering valuable solutions for developers and Ingenu’s leadership in providing reliable machine connectivity will give developers a distinct advantage in competing in the IoT market.”
The Leverege platform provides a complete and easy-to-use IoT application framework that utilizes the latest advances in high-fidelity simulation, data analytics, containerized software design and scalable cloud architectures. Its distributed, secure system collects and stores data from various streams, enables customers to manage, analyze and visualize data on a responsive dashboard consisting of both native and web applications. The integrated solution utilizes Ingenu’s Intellect device management platform, which controls and collects data from devices on the RPMA network.
“We are excited to partner with Leverege as our companies share a culture of technology innovation and customer responsiveness,” said Joshua Builta, Vice President of Product Management, Ingenu. “The Leverege platform will enhance the user experience in developing applications based on RPMA, and will spur new use cases in this rapidly expanding industry.”
Ingenu will feature the Leverege platform in booth 1704 at Internet of Things World, taking place May 16-18, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif. Leverege will be demonstrating a series of pre-configured management tools for IoT applications such as waste management, tank-level monitoring and asset tracking.
PRESS RELEASE:
VMware Unveils IoT Management Solution
VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) has unveiled VMware Pulse IoT Center, a secure, enterprise grade Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure management solution that will enable information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) teams to have complete control of their IoT infrastructure and things. The first solution in a new family of VMware IoT offerings, VMware Pulse IoT Center will help customers to more efficiently manage, operate, scale and protect their IoT projects from the edge to the cloud.
Gartner estimates that through 2020, 90 percent of IoT projects will use some form of IoT gateway. (1) Additionally, the worldwide installed base of IoT endpoints is expected to grow from 12.1 billion at the end of 2015 to more than 30 billion in 2020, according to IDC. (2) As IoT becomes prevalent in the enterprises, organizations need a simplified approach to manage, monitor and secure their infrastructure and data.
“As enterprises look to transform into digital businesses, this creates an opportunity for IT and OT teams to collaborate as they embrace IoT to improve operations within their business, while generating new forms of revenue,” said Mimi Spier, vice president, IoT, VMware. “We’re leveraging our expertise and proven success in the enterprise and applying it to IoT infrastructure and across all ‘things.’ VMware Pulse IoT Center will provide IT and OT teams visibility and control across their IoT use cases, while offering peace of mind with security capabilities throughout the IoT value chain.”
Customers investing in IoT face significant challenges as they move from Proof of Concept to production. They are seeking a simpler way to track, visualize, monitor and secure hundreds of thousands of different types of edge systems and connected devices across their IoT use cases.
VMware Pulse IoT Center will simplify the complexity of managing customers’ IoT infrastructure and their diverse types of things as easily as one. It will help improve reliability of infrastructure by providing accurate and real-time visibility of ‘thing’ health to enable customers to proactively address anomalies before they arise. VMware Pulse IoT Center will help accelerate ROI by streamlining how IoT projects gets deployed and scaled. Additionally, it will enable security across things, edge, network and applications to further protect IoT infrastructure and data access.
This new solution, highly focused on enterprise IoT, leverages existing, proven technologies from both VMware AirWatch for device management and VMware vRealize Operations for infrastructure monitoring and troubleshooting. It has been built to meet the specific, complex needs of IoT for both IT and OT teams, while supporting a broad range of edge systems and their connected devices. VMware Pulse IoT Center, which will be available as both a simple to deploy on-prem solution and as a Service offering, is currently in private beta with customers across automotive, entertainment, retail banking, health care and manufacturing industries.
Customers need to be able to securely transfer and analyze important data at the edge of the network (for example a vehicle, a remote oil pump, a manufacturing factory floor or an HVAC unit) to glean real-time intelligence and make smarter business decisions. Dell EMC will be offering VMware Pulse IoT Center as the preferred enterprise management and monitoring solution for Dell Edge Gateways to help customers easily manage all their IoT devices through a single tool. Dell Technologies’ broad IoT infrastructure enables customers’ digital transformation from edge to core to cloud.
This announcement is VMware’s latest in IoT. The company has announced several key relationships including Deloitte, EuroTech, Fujitsu, HARMAN, ThingWorx and Viz Explorer, in the lead up to this news. In 2016, it launched Liota (Little IoT Agent), a vendor-neutral open source software development kit (SDK) for building secure IoT data and control orchestration applications.
VMware Pulse IoT Center is expected to become available in calendar 2017. Pricing will be announced upon general availability. The solution will be sold as both a standalone solution by VMware and partners as well as a bundled offering via partners such as Dell EMC and others.
PRESS RELEASE:
DroneDeploy, DJI Partner on Drone-Mapping Solution for Construction
DroneDeploy, the leading cloud software platform for commercial drones, has announced a partnership with DJI—the global leader in developing and manufacturing drone and camera technology for personal and professional use to bring an all-in-one UAV system to construction enterprises. Available now from DJI’s online store, the DroneDeploy & DJI Construction Mapping Package includes a one-year Pro or Business software subscription to the DroneDeploy platform, the DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone and other drone accessories.
“DJI Phantom series drones have set the standard for businesses that need an easy and affordable way to capture detailed aerial data from their sites,” said Jan Gasparic, Head of Enterprise Marketing at DJI. “DroneDeploy has built a powerful platform for taking data from DJI’s aerial platforms and turning them into actionable data for businesses. By bringing these two platforms together as the Construction Mapping Package, the construction industry has a turnkey mapping solution to introduce or scale out their drone operations,” says Gasparic.
With DroneDeploy’s platform and powerful third-party tools and integrations available for install within the DroneDeploy interface, project managers and virtual design coordinators are able to deploy drones to generate accurate site surveys with ground control points in a fraction of the time required with traditional survey methods; efficiently collect aerial data to improve quality control, manage assets and reduce risk on the job site; quickly create weekly drone maps of jobsites to track progress and instantly share data between teams on desktop and mobile devices; make smarter quality assurance decisions by combining building information models (BIM) with high-resolution point clouds of actual site conditions; and directly integrate drone maps and point clouds with Autodesk, Procore, Box and other industry-standard software.
DroneDeploy’s software allows for intuitive automated flight so workers can fly the site, then view and analyze high-resolution maps and 3D models within the same day. Team members can then share the data and analysis with others for improved communication. They also have the capability to bring maps into the field on mobile devices to improve on-site inspections with annotated notes, photos, measurements, and more.
“Many leading construction enterprises use our extensible software platform and drone data analysis tools to save time and reduce risk on jobsites with sharable drone maps and 3D models,” said Mike Winn, co-founder and CEO of DroneDeploy. “This partnership with DJI paves the way for greater drone adoption across the construction industry.”
General Contractor Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC is currently leveraging DJI drones powered by the DroneDeploy platform to monitor site progress, communicate with key stakeholders, and increase ROI with the use of drone-generated 3D models.
“Using DroneDeploy, we’ve generated point clouds so detailed they’ve been mistaken for video,” said Hunter Cole, Virtual Design Coordinator at Brasfield & Gorrie. “But unlike a video, I can get the volume of any material stockpile on that site, I can make any linear measurement, and I can overlay the drone-generated point cloud over 3D BIM model, line it up exactly and see very quickly what’s been built versus the design intent,” said Hunter Cole, Virtual Design Coordinator at Brasfield & Gorrie. Read the full case study here.
PRESS RELEASE:
IoT-Ready Alliance to Establish Industry Standard for IoT Sensor Installation in LED Lighting Fixtures
Leading lighting and LED driver manufacturers, Internet of Things (IoT) technology companies, and industry groups have established the IoT-Ready Alliance, dedicated to making installation of IoT technology in luminaires easy now and in the future. The Alliance is setting industry standards that will enable LED light fixtures to be “IoT-Ready,” facilitating a quick and easy installation of advanced IoT sensors—as simple as changing a light bulb. This will also enable building operators to easily upgrade the sensors, ultimately future-proofing their buildings as IoT technology continues to advance at a much more rapid pace than that of LED fixtures.
Lighting fixtures are an ideal carrier for IoT technology in smart buildings, providing ubiquitous location for granular data collection throughout the building while delivering electric power to the sensors. Yet today, only a small percentage of LED fixtures have smart sensors. After the initial installation of LED fixtures, installing a sensor is cost prohibitive, making the later addition of sensors unlikely.
LED light fixtures typically boast a long lifetime of 15 years or more, while IoT and smart sensor technology is evolving rapidly, at a similar pace to that of the mobile phone. This means major IoT technology upgrades will certainly occur throughout the LED fixture’s life. These upgrade cycles for the IoT sensors call for a cost-effective, low-impact method of changing sensors.
Enlighted CEO Joe Costello stresses the need to solve this challenge immediately—a call which is being answered by the IoT-Ready Alliance. “There is tremendous urgency to enable today’s shipping LED luminaires to be easily upgraded with IoT technology. Otherwise, these luminaires condemn buildings to be unintelligent for the entire lifecycle of those fixtures. Fifteen or more years is a long time before building owners have another chance to install smart sensors. With IoT-Ready fixtures, customers can install future-proof LED luminaires in their buildings.”
The Alliance’s initiative addresses this challenge head on—standardizing an interface between any luminaire and any IoT sensor. This allows the sensors to be easily added or upgraded at any point in time.
“We are very pleased key players from the lighting industry have come together to meet the needs of our customers, and Tridonic is a driving part of it,” said Guido van Tartwijk, CEO at Tridonic. “IoT-Ready future-proofs lighting fixtures so that customers do not have to worry about forward compatibility to upcoming technology upgrades that are expected in the fast- developing world of IoT.”
The IoT-Ready Alliance is currently working to standardize the key interface characteristics needed to make this happen. Both fixture-integrated and external sensors are being addressed. The IoT-Ready standards will include definitions for electrical interfaces, connectors, and mechanical form-factors.
“IoT-based lighting systems have tremendous potential to optimize energy efficiency and bring new kinds of value to the lighting and building industries and beyond,” said Gabe Arnold, Technical Director at DesignLights Consortium. “By standardizing the interface between these IoT systems and the luminaires they are attached to, the IoT-Ready Alliance is addressing an essential aspect needed to unlock the full technology potential and enable widespread adoption.”
Initial industry participants include Aruba (a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company), Click Technology Co., Ltd., DECO Lighting, DesignLights Consortium, Enlighted, ERP Power LLC, Focal Point, MEAN WELL, Orion Energy Systems, Inc., Selux, Shenzhen Lighting Control Co., Silergy Corp, Tridonic, Universal Lighting Technologies and USAI Lighting.
The Alliance is open to any organization interested in driving the future of IoT and smart buildings. Visit www.IoT-Ready.org or Lightfair booth #3849 to learn more about the IoT-Ready Alliance and how to participate.
PRESS RELEASE:
SURE Universal Intros Remote Control for IoT Devices
As our lives become increasingly connected with the smart, networked “things” of the IoT, our interactions with technology are changing. Content, data, status, and device functions are now exchanged in an almost continuous stream. Devices can be actively or passively controlled, by us or by other devices, and operated manually, or automatically. We may be watching a movie while a wearable monitors our wellness, and the home adjusts energy, and the laundry intelligently cycles itself. All these “smart” exchanges happen concurrently, usually through more than one enabling technology. Most of them are meant to be invisible, or at least unobtrusive to the user.
Because the IoT represents such a large opportunity, many competing technologies have entered this promising market. Many more will no doubt follow in the years to come. At the very beginning of the USD $4-11 trillion IoT market that McKinsey predicts, there are already thousands of products, and dozens of protocols and languages to run them. Naturally, there are many incompatibilities.
Separate software applications for each of these devices, and proprietary hardware, have been the primitive work-arounds in these early days of the IoT. “Incompatibilities have been the biggest roadblock to consumer adoption for smart products and services,” says Viktor Ariel, CEO and Founder of SURE Universal (formerly Tekoia). “There are many useful technologies, but they have not been able to speak and work together. Until now, this has have made the user experience into something too complex for most consumers.”
In a landmark in IoT history, a method for a universal communication between smart devices has been agreed to by the Open Connectivity Forum (OCF). This consortium is led by dozens of the world’s largest and most influential global technology leaders, and represents hundreds of IoT-facing companies.
The group has developed a framework that can exchange commands and data across different IoT devices. At the same time, the OCF framework can understand any enabling protocol, and is brand agnostic. This breakthrough has opened up new avenues of possibility in the user experience. The concept of a single controller that can run all of our connected IoT devices has finally became achievable.
The first software-based universal remote control to take advantage of the Open Connectivity framework is the SURE Universal remote. Already a popular download worldwide for home entertainment control, the SURE Universal app recently became the first mobile client application to receive the vaunted OCF certification. This positions SURE Universal as a control platform for virtually any electronic device, regardless of its application, functionality, location, or enabling technology. Users can now interact with any of them through a unified experience, through their most familiar technology of all, the smartphone.
Consumers increasingly look to their smartphones as the logical controller for their digital lives. Smartphones routinely feature some of the key enabling technologies for the IoT, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Various hardware converters exist to bridge smartphones with otherwise incompatible devices, and older, pre-IoT electronics. These work-arounds are necessary today, but will eventually become irrelevant, as legacy electronics go the way of the VCR.
In approaching the market, the first application for SURE Universal is entertainment and media control. A conventional entertainment setup typically features multiple brands and multiple remote controls. Adding further complexity, many of today’s entertainment systems also include computers, tablets and phones, along with wireless components such as Bluetooth speakers and media servers.
In addition, legacy, non-connected TVs and cable boxes must be controllable as well, resulting in even more remote controls for the user to operate. A single smartphone running SURE Universal can manage all of these devices. Through an accessory infrared (IR) bridge, SURE Universal can control legacy IR devices, thus becoming a complete whole-home controller.
Because it can already speak with any IoT device today, and to any upcoming device the lives within the OCF framework, the SURE Remote application is future-proof. Through this feature, and its ability to control legacy, non-IoT electronics from a smartphone, SURE Universal can rightfully claim to be the first genuinely universal remote control for all user-accessible electronic devices.
For consumers, SURE Universal is also the easiest way to control smart appliances; a product category expected to reach USD $37.2 billion by 2020, according to Markets & Markets. As our home appliances, from kitchen to washroom to laundry room, increasingly incorporate smart, controllable features and wireless IoT connectivity, SURE is the only universal remote solution that gives consumers an intuitive way to control all of the appliances in their homes, without having to learn dozens of different applications and technologies.
SURE Universal’s emergence as the first unified remote control for connected objects has placed the company at the forefront of IoT development. Moving further, SURE Universal offers a cloud platform and smart device server, which together with the SURE Universal remote, comprises a complete software solution for smart appliance vendors. For appliance manufacturers, SURE is able to provide the only off-the-shelf, OCF-compliant solution for connecting these household devices, and integrating them with unified remote control.
Working in close cooperation with leading appliance manufacturers, SURE Universal has developed a smart device server, which is a software component running on a smart component that provides connectivity, device discovery, authentication, and security based on the OCF protocol, as well as models for device functionalities such as temperature control, video monitoring, and other smart home tasks. The SURE Platform includes cloud infrastructure for data analytics and monetization, as well as future services using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
The IoT is ripe with many opportunities such as health and medical applications, home security, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, and automotive electronics. SURE Universal’s technology will ultimately extend into these promising verticals.
SURE Universal’s introduction of the complete software solution for IoT marks a turning point in human-machine interaction. It is not difficult to imagine the benefits of unified user control as the markets for virtual reality, digital health, and population-scale big data mature. Regardless of application, all electronics will always have human intelligence or behaviors to control them. The “remote” will always be the interface between us and what we desire from our technologies. SURE Universal has made the interface universal. The interface is us and our smartphone, and incompatible technologies are no longer in the way. SURE Universal makes smart simple, as it should be.
PRESS RELEASE:
Comark Instruments Launches IoT-based Food-Safety Monitoring System
Comark Instruments has announced its latest HACCP monitoring product—the Kitchen Manager—a revolutionary food safety system made for food service operations powered by Internet of Things (IoT)-based technology.
“With the new Kitchen Manager system, Comark is bringing smart IoT technology to the customer workflows in kitchens,” says Lika Dutta, general manager of Comark Instruments. “This innovation will allow our customers to perform real-time temperature monitoring and store data for future use. Comark is committed to making HACCP compliance simpler and food safety processes more efficient for our customers. We are excited about connected devices and solutions within smart kitchens and will continue to innovate in this space.”
The Kitchen Manager encompasses the new Comark Kitchen Monitor and Comark Kitchen Checks platform to record, monitor and access temperature data wirelessly—keeping all information in one consolidated area.
“Our new system is a scalable platform that comprises fully automated refrigerator, freezer and cold store monitoring with the ability to take food temperatures via a Bluetooth thermometer. Kitchen Manager will replace existing paper-based HACCP systems—fully automating food safety processes,” says Michael Hall, product marketing director for Comark Instruments. “Kitchen Manager offers 24/7 security and peace of mind that critical temperatures are being monitored and that the user will be alerted whenever a problem arises—making it more convenient than ever to ensure food safety.”
Kitchen Manager is a web-based, HACCP compliant system made to monitor the temperature of all food storage areas—decreasing error and time. Temperature data is recorded and stored around-the-clock with access to records through any web connected device, creating a convenient IoT system for temperature monitoring solutions. The Kitchen Manager system can connect with many Comark products, including the new Bluetooth Pocketherm Thermometer.
Key features include fully automated refrigerator and freezer monitoring; sends notifications via SMS text or email if a unit falls out of pre-defined temperature range; automated cloud-cased auditing; access temperature data in real time from any web connected device; HACCP compliance checks on a smart device; customizable dashboard displays live data; create any check or audit from a simple five question tick list to a 100-page audit; and modular system that can be adapted to suit safety procedures; scalable platform that can grow with business.
“Comark has driven down costs and spurred innovation in temperature measuring through our attention and greater awareness to food safety and HACCP standards,” says Hall. “Our thermometers and temperature monitors are geared to the need for speed and accuracy of measurements, but always available at affordable prices.”
PRESS RELEASE:
People Power Closes Series B-1 Funding from Innogy, Origin to Support Smart-Home Solutions for Utilities, Service Providers
Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) software company, People Power, has announced its Series B-1 financing which includes $2 million from innogy SE (ETR: IGY), a subsidiary of RWE and Germany’s leading energy company with more than 23 million customers, and $1.2 million from Origin Energy (ASX: ORG), Australia’s largest energy retailer, in addition to other investments. This funding brings the company’s total investments to $14 million and fuels the expansion of People Power’s IoT deployments for service providers around the world.
Recognized as the only integrated solution of its kind, People Power’s IoT Suite enables intelligent device connectivity for powerful and easily managed consumer IoT programs for energy retailers and digital service providers. The suite integrates AI using bots in order to understand real-time data streams from a user’s life and learn patterns to provide more intelligent outcomes. These types of IoT services will revamp how the energy market interacts with consumers, while reimagining the kind of connected services consumers can engage with and how they are delivered.
“We’re enabling exciting new services for utility companies and service providers that deliver improved lifestyle experiences to their customers, and this additional funding will help us accelerate our efforts to keep up with global demand,” said Gene Wang, CEO and co-founder of People Power. “Energy providers can utilize our offerings to bring their customers solutions beyond typical energy services including home security and safety, improved energy management and more.”
Innogy and Origin are partnering with People Power to curate pilot programs in Germany and Australia, leading to broader market trials of smart home services. By bringing AI to IoT, People Power’s ready-made white-label solutions deliver recurring revenues from smart home services for leading companies like innogy and Origin.
“Bot-enabled machine learning services are the next big step in the smart home market, and People Power is already there,” said Florian Kolb, Managing Director of innogy New Ventures, Palo Alto. “Combining People Power’s technology with innogy’s platform will allow us to accelerate user participation and evolve our energy services in Germany. Its IoT services enhance our own sustainable and innovative energy solutions by enabling us to better scale and manage programs. The intelligence provided by People Power’s technology opens new market and revenue possibilities.”
“The rise of renewables is transforming energy markets around the world, however the biggest disruption has proven to be new technologies,” said Cameron Briggs, Origin’s Head of Future Energy. “To stay ahead of our competitors in Australia and provide valuable connected home services to our customers, we turn to partners like People Power. Utilizing People Power’s solutions will help us to drive customer adoption and deliver key IoT services, establishing us as a market leader and helping us go beyond the basic utility model.”