IBM, Jasper connect IoT devices in the field to analytics behind the scenes
The two companies will integrate Jasper's device provisioning and monitoring system with the IBM IoT Foundation, a platform-as-a-service offering for analyzing data in the cloud.
Much of the value of IoT lies in what enterprises and consumers can do with the data their networks collect. Large-scale cloud computing is expanding those capabilities.
Jasper helps companies stay connected to hardware products so they can keep in touch with consumers, give them better service, and make money from services rather than just devices. IBM IoT Foundation goes a step further to help those companies learn bigger lessons from the objects they have in the field. In IoT Foundation, enterprises can take advantage of IBM Bluemix to develop applications for crunching collected data.
The timing is good for integration like this to simplify enterprise IoT, Gartner analyst Eric Goodness said.
"Not only are a lot of people ready to do it, I think there are a lot of people with IoT solutions now that need that," he said. For example, an automaker like General Motors may sell connected cars in many different countries and want to collect and analyze data from all of them on one platform, Goodness said.
Simon Berman, Jasper's vice president of product marketing, gave the example of an oil company's pipeline.
Sensors installed on the pipeline can report data such as the pressure and temperature inside the pipe. Jasper can provision those sensors at large scale in remote locations, using its tight integration with carriers in more than 100 countries. Jasper has access to all the data coming over the cellular connection. Through Jasper's Control Center software, an oil company can keep track of where those sensors are and how they're doing.
With IoT Foundation, the pipeline operator can apply business rules to the data coming in. A simple example would be to detect that a sensor that should be reporting once a day starts doing it once an hour instead. In that case, IoT Foundation could tell Control Center to remotely restart the malfunctioning device.
The two platforms will be integrated under the same user interface, so to manage these capabilities, enterprises will only need to turn to one dashboard.
The partnership is non-exclusive, and enterprises can choose whether to integrate Jasper Control Center and IBM IoT Foundation.