New platform for the Internet of Things

I’ve been thinking for some time that the Internet of Things (IoT) is the next big technology disruption – what we’re doing now may simply not scale easily to this new world. Nothing new there but I was listening to an Analyst teleconference yesterday around the innovations presented at IBM’s recent Impact conference in Las Vegas, and someone from IBM commented that he was now seeing real traction for IoT amongst IBM’s customers. It is, apparently, not just an Analyst thing any more….

Then, this morning, I saw an announcement from ARM and LogMeIn: they’re collaborating on the ‘Xively Jumpstart Kit‘ for the Internet of Things. This combines a public cloud platform-as-a-service for IoT with ARM’s platform for building connected devices using ARM-designed microcontrollers. According to the press people, what this means is that “developers and businesses can focus on innovation rather than infrastructure and platforms, and as a result can progress from prototyping to volume deployment much faster” – which sounds about right to me. 

Just a heads-up and a sign of the times. But don’t overlook ARM and its importance in the embedded market. Embedded chips are what make ‘things’ intelligent and they power the IoT. It may be “Intel Inside” on the TV – but when you actually look inside an intelligent device that isn’t a PC, it’s often ARM (although ARM Holdings itself doesn’t make chips, it simply licenses its designs to chip builders, itself an interesting IP-based business model).