Bridging the IoT Gap With Cellular Connectivity

The on-premise infrastructure model continues to fall away, as more businesses embrace the benefits of the Cloud. Regardless of size, sector or stage of digital transformation, the promise and the reality continue to win over even the most tech-averse of companies. Enhanced accessibility, scalability, security, and consistent updates, as well as greatly increased collaboration, are stacking the odds in favor of a cloud-based future.

Whether the corporate path leads towards Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud computing continues to improve professional and personal lives across the globe. And when the Internet of Things is introduced into the cloud equation, it adds a whole new layer of opportunity. With the combination of cloud and IoT solutions, a business becomes smarter, more responsive, and able to make business-critical decisions faster and with more accuracy.

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Cloud, IoT and a Case for Connectivity

Though cloud technologies aren’t strictly required for building and sustaining IoT solutions, the two are a well-suited match. The individual IoT endpoints – often sensors – collect data and pass it to the cloud, where data is mined, decisions are made and commands are relayed back to the endpoints for key actions to be performed.

Yet there’s still a weak link, and an opportunity to bridge the gap with cloud-native cellular connectivity. This was the idea that established our company in 2014, marking the birth of one of the first connectivity providers with a cellular platform in the public cloud. Seven years on, and Cloud-native cellular IoT connectivity has matured, it’s fast and efficient, and it is accelerating the impact of the IoT on a global scale.

Often, many IoT deployments have failed to reach their full potential. They’ve been heavily constricted and unable to realize the benefits of Cloud, frustrating business plans and upending corporate objectives. Even though applications, software and systems were hosted in the cloud, connectivity was still being provided through traditional operator cellular contracts and connections. And that creates latency issues. It stifles the flow of information and reduces the quality of decision-making.

The Advantages of Cloud-Native Cellular Connectivity 

When businesses move beyond traditional cellular contracts, they can overcome the limitations of outmoded connectivity models. Inflexibility and bottlenecks are transformed into agility, scalability, resilience, and elasticity. IoT time-to-market and time-to-revenue accelerate and workflows are transformed into plug-and-play environments. There’s no requirement for restrictive contracts or hardware-based APIs either.

Of the numerous direct and immediate benefits of cloud-native connectivity, the key advantages for businesses are:

• Self-service. Start right away without the need for any of the usual lengthy administrative niggles and inconveniences. There are no contracts to sign, no tickets to be opened and no contractual commitments. Instead, it’s all taken care of with automated workflows.
• Easily integrated. With Cloud-native connectivity, your devices, applications and systems simply work together. Connections are established quickly, paving the way for improved operational efficiencies and heightened security. In addition, connectivity solutions can are easily integrated into your own and any third-party applications and cloud services.

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• Ubiquitous low latency. Instead of routing data to the cellular operator’s home country, data is routed directly to the closest cloud region. This not only reduces latency, but also reduces device energy consumption, extending battery life and improving service availability. You’ll enjoy robust, low-latency connectivity to a Cloud-native, highly reliable core network that reaches around the globe, selecting the best option for every situation as it presents itself. 
• Global cellular network. There’s no need to source from different vendors when you choose cloud-native cellular IoT connectivity. It’s easy to scale up across national and network borders, even on a country-by-country basis. Simply access multiple networks through one global IoT operator, allowing management of all connectivity aspects in just one platform.
• Cost savings. Efficiencies of cloud translate into potential cost savings, with microservices, network function virtualization and software-defined networking features all playing a part in managing costs. Access to these tools makes networks more responsive and cost-effective to manage, provision, deprovision and troubleshoot through software solutions. Not only is responsiveness increased, but processing power is only allocated when it’s required, which helps extend the life of hardware, as well as reducing disk space, energy and cost.

A Faster, More Resilient Future

When you’re looking for fast, effective IoT, there’s no doubt that end-to-end cloud-native connectivity can set your business free. It overcomes the barriers put in place by traditional operator contracts and connections. It’s resilient, dependable and fast, allowing business leaders to achieve the fastest time to ROI, as well as sidestepping many of the pitfalls associated with siloed deployments. By alleviating overhead, expenses and administration pressure you can focus on your core business competencies, creating outstanding IoT solutions, while a cloud provider does the rest.

[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]