AxizWorkgroup has launched a cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) platform that will allow resellers to offer customers a fully-fledged solution to harvest data from devices throughout the organisation.
With estimates of the number of devices that might be connected to the Internet of Things within the next few years in the billions, the distributor has recognised that resellers will be actively seeking ways to help their customers derive value from them.
In addition, a huge number of devices currently in use are not necessarily digital or easy to connect to a modern network – but organisations are not likely to rip and replace them in the near-term.
Bringing together a complete solution that resellers can take to market, AxizWorkgroup has partnered with iot.nxt, Cisco and Neotel to bring a viable platform to market.
Jacques Malherbe, MD of AxizWorkgroup’s Advanced Technology division, explains that the company has got a range of other partnerships lined up that will offer resellers a variety of solutions into a broader African market.
“We are putting together an eco-system of partners to provide a range of solutions,” Malherbe says.
Importantly, it’s not only modern digital devices – or things – that will be catered for. “There are a lot of machines out there that are very hostile to the digital world,” Malherbe adds. “We are putting together an eco-system that will ensure that all components talk to each other, and that will help our resellers to reach out to their customers with a full solution.”
The platform is being delivered on the AxizWorkgroup cloud.
At the heart of the IoT is iot.nxt’s management platform that allows developers to build solutions that communicate with and manage both digital and analogue devices regardless of their architecture.
These could include security cameras, sensors, industrial machines or appliances.
The company started life in the retail space, but later won a contract to help the Department of Correctional Services to manage the automated systems in its prisons.
Faced with a variety of different control systems and devices that were all operating independently of each other, iot.nxt built a platform that would bring them all together in one management console.
The platform not only brings together disparate devices, but filters our “noise” or backgroup running data, bringing only relevant data to the console. Companies can set policies and workflow outlines to cater for various incidents to ensure that the data is not only gathered but also used to manage systems effectively.
Because it’s a platform rather than an application, the iot.nxt system can be adapted to just about any industry, managing a wide range of relevant devices and sensors.
The iot.nxt solution, named Raptor, can be used either as an on-premise installation or via the cloud.
