15 Things to Remember While Selecting an IoT Platform

How does one compare the IoT platforms available in the market and select the right one? Let us take a look at some of the platforms available in the market and their features, and see the selection guide presented in this article.

- Aaryaa Padhyegurjar

Around 2015, there were 260 IoT platforms in the market. In just one year, the number rose to 360! By 2017, there were 450 IoT platforms and today, there are over 600. This exponential growth in the number of IoT platforms proves that IoT has already become mainstream.

But this large number can lead to a lot of confusion when it comes to selecting the right platform for a particular business. There are so many factors that need to be considered and assessed. One needs to keep in mind at least the following 15 things while selecting an IoT platform.

1. Vendor/parent company

You need to ensure that the platform you are choosing comes from a reliable and credible vendor—one that has been in the market for a considerable amount of time. You can try checking out other products from the same vendor and see if they have a good life expectancy in the market. You can consider looking at clients and customers of the vendor as well, especially those who have invested in the same platform as you are planning to. Trust is a key factor in the IoT platform market—you are trusting a platform with your data after all.

2. Scalability

A scalable system is a stable system. Over time, businesses grow, expand and sometimes even pivot. Your IoT platform must be scalable enough and should accommodate all these changes— especially the large influx of data as a company matures in the market. To make your selection process easier, check how the IoT platform has grown from the time it was launched. Did it compete with the changing technologies? Has it adopted newer protocols?