Pioneer in connecting restricted IoT devices to Azure IoT Hub and AWS IoT Core

Antony's role
Innovator, business model creator, product manager, business developer

The challenge
How can highly constrained mobile devices running on narrowband mobile networks connect to the leading cloud device gateways?

The solution
Create the Cloud Connect solution. Cloud Connect acts as a proxy for narrowband devices using UDP protocols. It provides the UDP connection point in the cloud and then translates each session into a TCP IP TLS session towards AWS or Azure gateways. Cloud Connect generates and registers all TLS certificates for each session and manages these throughout the lifecycle of the UDP devices.

Results
Cloud Connect was sold to operators worldwide as part of the Ericsson IoT Accelerator solution and secured customers, but over time both the number of users of IoT Core and IoT Hub declined while the NBIoT networks did not live up to the promise of the technology. Aeris IoT SaaS, after taking over Ericsson's IoT business, eventually discontinued the product.

Lessons learned
Sometimes high-growth market opportunities can fade during the time it takes to develop a solution. What appears to be a high-growth opportunity at the beginning of the project can look completely different when the solution is finally ready to be implemented.