Particle, which already claims to be the most widely-used IoT platform, has launched Particle Cloud, billed as an enterprise version of its IoT platform, and has partnered with Google, Microsoft, IFTTT and a number of other data and analytics cloud platforms that can help customers generate insights from the massive quantities of data produced by IoT products.
Particle started live as spark.io and was successful with hardware development kits for creating IoT prototypes in conjunction with the company’s IoT cloud platform. Particle launched on Kickstarter in 2013 and says its tools are now used by 70,000 engineers in more than 170 countries and by many Fortune 500 companies to develop and manage fleets of new IoT products. It claims to have shipped more than 120,000 dev kits.
What its announcement does not make clear is precisely how the new enterprise cloud differs from its current offering. According to Particle, “Particle Cloud provides the necessary infrastructure to connect physical devices to the web and expose their functionality through a secure API, as well as a suite of software development tools and a Device Management Console for managing a ‘fleet’ of connected devices.”
Enterprise customers can also upgrade to get private cloud deployments, enterprise uptime SLAs, enterprise support contracts, pre-built integrations with popular data management and analytics platforms, access controls and audit logs to track activity in the system, and storage of events and data published by devices.
Particle claims that, with its platform, engineers and developers can build their first prototype in an afternoon with an inexpensive hardware development kit ($19), and can move incrementally to pilot hundreds or thousands of units and eventually to a full-scale roll-out of 100,000 units or more.”
It adds: “Companies like Keurig, Briggs Healthcare, and Engie (GDF Suez) have already developed new products that run on Particle Cloud and have delivered those products to customers at scale in as little as six months. In addition, more than 20 Particle-powered products from startups like Grove and CleverPet have been crowdfunded on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, raising millions of dollars to deliver their products.”
Particle has also partnered with semiconductor companies Broadcom, Cypress, u-blox, and ST for its hardware, and cellular connectivity providers Twilio, T-Mobile and Telefónica to provide networking. It claims to have a partner ecosystem of more than 50 professional services companies that can help customers develop their physical IoT product and the software applications those devices will communicate with.
