Frost Radar™: Internet of Things Managed Connectivity Platforms, 2023

Frost Radar™: Internet of Things Managed Connectivity Platforms, 2023

The internet of things (IoT) ecosystem comprises hardware, software/application/platform, professional services, managed services, and connectivity market participants. The hardware component encompasses physical devices—the tangible and deployable elements of IoT solutions—including chipsets, connectivity modules, SIM cards, and the devices themselves.

The software layer runs on top of the hardware architecture, enabling orchestration, control, and applications that collectively create IoT solutions. The final crucial component is connectivity, which enables communications between devices and with private and public clouds. Depending on the use case, connectivity may be based on wireless technologies such as 2G, 3G, LTE (4G), LTE-M, NB-IoT, 5G and 5G RedCap; satellite technologies; wired technologies; or others.

An IoT managed connectivity platform facilitates the effective management of various connectivity standards in a cost-efficient way. IoT managed connectivity platforms integrate and analyze connectivity for IoT devices, such as M2M (machine-to- machine) SIM cards. The software offers controls such as activation and deactivation of connections, proactively checks for errors and predicts failures before they happen, and monitors and provides dashboards of connected devices. It also may incorporate cost optimization so clients have access to the most cost-efficient offering. Some platforms only manage cellular IoT technologies, while others manage LPWAN (e.g., LoRa and Sigfox) and satellite IoT as well. Some companies develop a platform compatible with the different technologies while others simply create a single pane of glass that integrates different platforms for each technology using application programming interfaces (APIs) that simplify IoT management. IoT managed connectivity platforms can also facilitate the control and automation of IoT solutions and in some cases add security, analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain capabilities.

Frost & Sullivan analyzes numerous companies in an industry. Those selected for further analysis based on their leadership or other distinctions are benchmarked across 10 Growth and Innovation criteria to reveal their position on the Frost Radar™. The publication presents competitive profiles of each company on the Frost Radar™ considering their strengths and the opportunities that best fit those strengths.