Summary Bullets:
• GlobalData has completed its latest update on the enterprise IoT platform market. Not surprisingly there have been many vendor announcements over the last six months, including new partnerships and new technical capabilities.
• New features focus on updated edge capabilities, machine learning-powered security (and assorted other security enhancements), analytics improvements, further support for no-code application development, and vertical-specific IoT applications.
Over the last 12 months, the enterprise IoT platform market has evolved, with many new capabilities added and diverse go-to market and technology partnerships established. Examples of the latter include Microsoft’s collaboration with Winmate to build hardware, IoT devices, and embedded solutions; SAP and Verizon’s collaboration on analytics; Google’s integration with the Aeris connectivity management platform, and PTC’s partnership with Magic Leap to advance AR in the enterprise. Some of the new capabilities recently announced include the following:
• Cisco announced new capabilities for IoT Control Center, including machine learning to detect anomalies, smart billing to optimize rate plans, and eSIM as a service to support global supply chains.
• AWS added SiteWise Monitor, a SaaS offering which allows customers to create no-code web applications; it also added new IoT SiteWise capabilities to collect data and create models, and new pricing based on the number of messages rather than the amount of data ingested.
• The IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management Automotive Compliance solution introduces pre-defined assets for compliance. The automotive systems and software engineering solution includes project dashboards, agile process guidance and detailed reports.
Most of the nine vendors we analyze in this updated GlobalData report have busily added to their portfolios throughout 2019 and so far in 2020. Amazon Web Services has risen in our rankings due in part to capabilities announced in late 2018 that significantly improved its visualization and analytics tools and edge processing abilities, and a slew of improvements in 2019 to its Sitewise and Greengrass tools to add no-code development and containerization enhancements. IBM remains a very strong provider, offering IoT integration with its own considerable software offerings (e.g., Maximo, Cognos, and TRIRIGA) for asset monitoring and business intelligence. Cisco has upped its security capabilities with the acquisition of Sentryo, a new IIoT security architecture, and IoT Control Center enhancements. Microsoft has added new edge support, while SAP has improved its position with a partnership with Intel. PTC continues its excellence in the industrial sector, is seeing positive movement from its Rockwell Automation investment and partnership, and is advancing the cause of AR in the enterprise. Huawei continues to deliver advanced connectivity technology in support of large scale IoT and private network implementations. HPE, however, is no longer developing its Universal IoT Platform, instead assisting (or co-developing with) industrial companies on infrastructure, integration, and consulting for digital transformation projects that connect IoT and manufacturing systems.
Of these vendors, we rated IBM, SAP, AWS, and PTC as ‘Very Strong’ providers. Across our key buying criteria, these vendors demonstrated a clear mastery of major requirements, particularly data collection, manipulation, management, and analysis – all capabilities that allow IoT to be truly transformative. We also note that leaders vary by the segment in the market where they focus: SAP, IBM, and (to a lesser extent) Oracle lead in the enterprise software segment; Amazon and Microsoft continue to be seen as leading the hyperscale cloud services segment; and Cisco is a clear leader in the infrastructure segment, with Huawei close behind.
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