IoT Solutions
IoT opens many possibilities to modern sectors like Home Automation, Factory 4.0, Smart Cities, etc...
Every time we see a remote sensors, or any other connected object, we are looking a component of an IoT Solution.
Behind the scenes there is one or more software (we call it services) that are collecting data from this sensor or interacting with the connected object.
An IoT Solutions is composed by the entire set of connected objects and services required to reach the solution's purpose.
For example in a CarSharing IoT Solution we consider as part of this solution, not only all connected cars, but also all software used by user as solutions services. Services like the mobile app for customers, a web dashboard for monitoring car's state, another web portal for user billing...
As part of an IoT Solution, in addition to objects and services we also need to consider all users as actors and part of the IoT Solution. The IoT Solution design process define also how those components must interact among them self and users. A well-designed solution includes also user's purposes, and the actions they need to take on the object (physically or remotely).
Sometimes we need to run simultaneously many IoT Solutions with different purposes, but on the same object's set. That is possible if the IoT Solutions share the same IoT EcoSystem.
NB: this IoT Solution's definition works great when you design the solution. For his implementation, you must go more deep on technical details like define the entire IoT EcoSystem and relative IT Infrastructure.
Identify right components
EcoSystem Objects Services
Identify right objects
Today, when we design an IoT solution we choose the object to use depending on the available technology.
For example, we must develop smart home software using a specific gateway to communicate with multiple smart home devices (lights, shutters, doors...).
In this case our software's features can involve only objects from that specific gateway.
What about other connected objects from other manufacturer, or other home system, or even the user smartphone?
We can decide to avoid complex features or integrate multiple systems to out software.
Any of those integrations adds effort and problems to our solution development.
Because of that, choosing the right communication protocol is a critical requirements in IoT solution design.
On the other side, from software prospective, it's much more easy identify the right object to interact with. When the software receives the list of available objects, depending on his purpose, he can choose the right object by object's capabilities like sensors values or commands for actuators.
With the same prospective, when you design your IoT Solution specify which data and which commands object's must expose to the services. So you can switch between objects from different manufacturers more easily without altering the software behaviour.
Sometimes it happens that there is no product available that supply all our requirements already available on the market.
So we must design and build our connected object.
To do that we can consider using an EcoSystem from some IoT Platform on the market.
But be careful, many platforms are developed around a specific hardware solution.
Those platforms' speedup the prototyping phase, but they keep you connected to their hardware.
Other platforms may not satisfy all your IoT Solution requirements, check out the IoT EcoSystem for more info on possible solution requirements.
User-centric services
The goal of almost any IoT Solution is to support users in their tasks or decisions.
Keep it in mind when choose/develop the services for your solutions. Services are an important component that allow users improve his experience with connected objects or even with his entire environment (when multiple objects are available). For this reason the software will continue to be designed around the user, and will adapt depending on available objects.
It often happens that a connected object must be reached from different actors with different needs.
Depending on the IoT Solution actors can be varied and each one can have a different purpose, prefer different software installed on different devices, be physically near or far from the object...
Then when design your IoT solution, define well how actors should interact with connected objects: physically/remote, from a smartphone/table/pc, they need realtime interactions or just the results of batch processing like analytics results.
For example the end user prefers a mobile app to handle his objects, meanwhile the object's manufacturer prefer a web dashboard to display the reports about shelled products' usage.
For your IoT Solutions you can choose to develop your custom services or use 3rd party software. For example the end user mobile app can be easily customized with your brand logo and colors, but the software dedicated to the remote assistance can be a commercial customer service software.
If you decide to develop your own services, remember that the communication library and protocol that you must integrate in your software are part of the IoT EcoSystem. Depending on them your software can be able to 'talk' only with specific objects that talks the same protocol.