Aeris has announced the launch of Neo; a Web services platform to ease the challenges with launching “Internet of Things” functionality. Think about this in the context of an Amazon Web Services model.
At the simplest level AWS enables the on-demand delivery of IT resources and applications via the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Now think about this in the context of IoT. When looking to launch an IoT solution today the search for connectivity can be complicated and costly. Neo is targeting any connectivity customer — whether a developer just getting started or a solution provider with thousands of IoT devices already deployed — who are looking for a single stop to meet their requirements. Aeris claims a reduction in costs of 50% or more and a much faster time to market.
Neo is an online platform where customers can get started with their initial connectivity needs and increase capacity, coverage and costs only as their business warrants. Within the platform, the following options are offered:
- 2G/3G data coverage across most of the United States
- Carrier grade quality and performance
- Proprietary API usage to secure your traffic from other external traffic on the network
- Fully customizable SMS alerts to notify you when performance issues are potentially at hand
- Packet alerts when data usage isn’t in line with your plan, this could be an overrun or a substantial under run alerting there could be a connectivity or performance issue
- Off-line alerts when a device is offline
- Text message alerts when data usage is about to be exceeded
- Activate, deactivate or change the parameters of your SIMs through the cloud
- Private link functionality, which allows you to keep your devices on the same secure network as your corporate traffic or make them accessible publicly if desired
- Remote diagnostic and management tools
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There is certainly a great deal of flexibility and ease of use with this on-demand model. I will be interested to see how the adoption process goes. I believe there will be a requirement for a good deal of market awareness to educate potential customers as to the benefits of this solution. Given Aeris is already in the market with other IoT and machine-to-machine connectivity solutions the challenge will hopefully not be too steep.
The benefits of Neo are quite apparent, hopefully the market will understand the opportunity and join in.
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