Self-Service IIoT Platform Gives OT Experts an Edge

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Finding an industrial IoT platform that meets the end-to-end needs of both IT and OT is a common challenge for manufacturers. And it’s a big reason why smart-factory initiatives often fail. OT prioritizes robust, resilient systems and secure, isolated deployments that use logic, while IT prizes quick development of applications and agile adoption of new technologies. When manufacturers choose an IoT platform that does not offer flexible deployment options, those two worlds—and their priorities—clash.

Operational experts on the factory floor are masters of their domain, but they often lack the skills to deploy the latest IoT technologies to meet production quality and continuity needs. They need a platform that allows them to apply their understanding—without having to learn how to code.

With its Cumulocity IoT platform, Software AG tackles these challenges via a set of low-code tools that let OT experts connect and manage devices, analyze data, build and apply rules, and create customized dashboards.

The solution’s adaptability lets companies remain agile in their approach to the market, changing their strategy as needed to stay competitive (Video 1).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CUx6WTf3t8

Video 1. The Cumulocity IoT platform includes “self-service” low-code tools for OT experts and unites edge, cloud, and on-premises systems in one architecture. (Source: Software AG)

The @SoftwareAG IIoT solution’s adaptability lets companies remain agile in their approach to the market, changing their strategy as needed to stay competitive. via @insightdottech

Smart-Factory Analytics

“We want OT specialists to leverage their knowledge without any software development effort,” says Andrej Schreiner, product manager for Cumulocity IoT Edge & SDKs at Software AG. “We make sure the APIs and solutions that customers build with our tooling are available for any deployment option—whether that’s a cloud solution, a private data center, or even a single industrial PC that sits next to the assets it connects with.”

At one automotive manufacturer, the solution helps OT experts build their own applications to solve specific problems within the highly automated manufacturing processes. The company uses industrial robots to paint car body parts on factory floor assembly lines. Sometimes there were problems with the paint job that caused quality defects. Often those issues went unnoticed in the factory and were discovered by customers, threatening brand reputation and increasing the costs to correct.

Using the self-service Cumulocity IoT streaming analytics—deployed on an Intel® processor-based IPC located directly at the painting stations—machine operators and process experts can create analytics models via an intuitive user-interface. As a result anomalies and potential problems are identified in real time and service measures are initiated immediately, before the part even leaves the paint station.

“At the moment an anomaly is detected, they can stop production and apply corrective actions,” says Schreiner.

This dramatically reduces time and expense on the product end, but it also illustrates how such solutions can empower OT professionals to solve problems on the floor. There’s no need for an IT software engineer to be involved. “The QC expert knows the process, how the robot works, and where glitches can happen—and that same person created the analytics rules without any coding,” adds Schreiner.

Distributed Architecture and Edge Computing

Many industrial IoT applications need computing power at the edge to help with decision-making when they are not connected to the cloud. For example, an energy company operates wind-power farms using a distributed architecture, with multiple data streams flowing from several sites. Each turbine needs its own intelligence and each farm needs robust compute capability to manage all the turbines in its area. At the same time a centralized, cloud-based command center oversees the entire operation.

Wind-power farms tend to be in remote areas, making continuous high-speed cloud connectivity a challenge. Cumulocity IoT allows companies to operate a secure edge solution that delivers the compute power to keep a site up and running even when it’s not linked to the larger network. When it does connect, the platform can backhaul data to the cloud for deeper analysis.

“One advantage of edge analytics is to pre-filter and aggregate data before it goes to the cloud, or before you generate an alarm or insight,” Anthony Sayers, Partner Manager for Global Alliances at Software AG, says. “The hardware needs to be powerful enough to deal with large sets of data and machine learning models—and this is where our partnership with Intel® helps us. Intel’s powerful IPCs allow us to create use cases that can handle large amounts of IoT device data at the edge.”

Full-Service IIoT

Designed to connect with many different industry protocols, the solution is adaptable for complex use cases that require customization beyond what the self-service tooling supports. “A lot of customers choose to work with one of our experienced consultants, who can guide them in finding the perfect combination of technologies for their use case,” says Schreiner. With the QuickStart Pilot Package, customers can achieve a return on investment within 90 days. “We want to ensure they’re getting the business success they need,” Schreiner adds.

Building alliances with other hardware and software providers is an ongoing priority for Software AG. “No single company can deliver everything needed for an IoT project,” says Sayers. “We continue to create partnerships so we can deliver everything our clients need to power complex, real-time solutions.”

IoT SIs: Is an OpEx Model Right for You?

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

A conversation with Dean Reverman Mark Fraker BlueStar Systems integrator

[Podcast Player]

For most IoT systems integrators and resellers, revenue is driven by sales and installation of new equipment. But what if you could move from a CapEx model to an OpEx model? And what if you could rely on partners to keep your tech stack up to date?

In this podcast we explore the possibilities with BlueStar, a global distributor supporting SIs, VARs, and MSPs. In our conversation with Mark Fraker, VP of Marketing, and Dean Reverman, Global Marketing Manager, we explore:

  • Where the biggest opportunities are for SIs in the coming months
  • How SIs can get to market faster with the latest tech
  • Why new financing models are the key to recurring revenue

Listen Here

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Transcript

Dean Reverman: You can’t just flip the switch one day and go from a CapEx model over to an OpEx model. So you need to be able to bridge the gap, and we can help folks through some of those financing things.

Kenton Williston: That was Dean Reverman from BlueStar. I’m Kenton Williston, the Editor-in-Chief of insight.tech. Every episode of the IoT Chat, I talk to industry experts about the technology and business trends that matter for developers, systems integrators, and end users. Today, I have the privilege of talking not only with Dean, but also Mark Fraker from BlueStar. We’ll be looking at the technologies and opportunities coming down the pipe for systems integrators, resellers, and MSPs—and how you can get ahead of the curve.

What I’m most excited about, though, are the new business models that BlueStar has opened up with its financial partners. They’ve done some really creative thinking that will allow you to turn your business into a subscription-based model, that not only brings in recurring revenue, but is also super affordable for your customers. So, Mark, Dean—first of all, welcome to the show. Really great to have you here.

Dean Reverman: Thanks for having us.

Mark Fraker: Thank you very much.

Kenton Williston: First, let me give you the opportunity to say a little bit about what in the world BlueStar is, and what you do there at BlueStar. So, Mark, if you want to give me your quick bio.

Mark Fraker: Sure. Mark Fraker. I’m the Vice President of Marketing for BlueStar. I’ve been with BlueStar about 21 years. And if I had to sum up exactly what BlueStar is, we’re one of the leading global distributors of technology solutions for hardware, software, and services for the value-added reseller community, the MSPs and technology software companies around the globe. So, currently right now we probably provide services for approximately 12,000 resellers and software companies, and about 117 countries.

Kenton Williston: Quite impressive. And Dean, what’s your role?

Dean Reverman: My name is Dean Reverman. I’m the Global Marketing Manager here at BlueStar, and so I take care of, or I’m in part of, any of the marketing activities that we do here at BlueStar. And just to add on to what Mark said there, BlueStar is truly a value-added distributor. So our differentiator in the marketplace is providing value ads that are different—through support, configuration, education, financing, marketing—things like that, to enable our partners in the marketplace.

Mark Fraker: Well, I’ll start out on that one. But basically 2020 was the year the temperature scan became more important than the barcode scan. We had all types of solutions popping up, and I think truly what the pandemic did is accelerate the advancement of new technologies and solutions in all, across the globe. We had a lot of tech companies pivot. They created new solutions. And I have to say, it was both for essential and non-essential businesses, and they had to do this because of all the unique dynamics of 2020. Now, with that said, I think there’s going to be a carryover into 2021 and for years to come, because this acceleration of these newer technologies is going to continue. And it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about temperature scanning, to last mile delivery, to facial recognition, to social distancing, to curbside pickups, smart lockers—it was all over, across all verticals.

And I think what we’re seeing is that there’s also a major blend-in of the technology. So you have older technologies that are being blended in with the newer technologies. And this is coming from a younger group of folks that are creating these new solutions as we move forward. So, Dean, maybe you have something that you want to add to that.

Dean Reverman: No, absolutely. I think you’re hitting the nail on the head there. I mean, not only is there a blending of technologies, but, to Mark’s point, there’s new opportunities out there as well. When I think about it, Ken, when you think about the new opportunities that solutions integrators should be looking at, growing your tech stack is definitely a part of that, right? I mean today, unlike before—and we’ve seen some of the just—acceleration that is happening in the marketplace as it relates to needing to bring on new opportunities and taking those opportunities to market very fast—you have to be sensitive to the tech stack that you have, that you’re operating within. And sometimes that means developing your ecosystem, getting outside of your comfort zone and understanding what’s happening out in the marketplace.

For example, as Mark already touched on, we’re seeing a tremendous amount of opportunities in access control. And so, yes, that’s the use of AI—maybe it’s the use of temperature control, validating who’s there, making sure that we’re doing surveying at the point of entry into any building. And this could be front of house, so as it relates to hospitality, retail, or in senior care facilities—things of that nature, when people are coming in and visiting. There’s opportunities there. It can be back of house. For any MSP that works in a scenario where there’s back of house folks—like in warehousing—or just need access to a building. So that whole area, if you will, is completely changed. And a lot of the technologies that are involved in there have seen rapid adaptation through this pandemic.

So even though you’re having some of this adopted today, a lot of that’s going to be still relevant in a post-COVID world as well. Access control’s not going away—the need to be able to monitor who’s in, who’s out, why are they there? Those types of things, that’s still going to happen. Some other technologies and opportunities that we’re seeing that the systems integrators I know are very aware of would be like, kiosk, right? We’re seeing a lot of on-demand customer experience. And in our world, Mark, I think you’ll agree that on-demand, or that customer experience, is always key, right? And for MSPs, systems integrators, they have to understand that the end users in many markets are building solutions around the customer experience.

Kiosks can do that. They bring an on-demand type of a structure that definitely plays into the younger generation—the younger generation’s desire to control the experience, be in control, if you will, of the order taking and things like that. So we’re seeing a lot opening up there as well. So, just a couple ideas off the top of my head there. But security plays a role in that as well. And I know that a lot of solutions integrators are getting into that understanding deeper, as they try to wrangle, if you will, and pull the reins on some of these new opportunities that are in the marketplace, that I’m sure their customers are coming to them with—there needs to be an eye on security. And, luckily, what the good news here is that you start leaning on partners that have solutions around that.

For example, BlueStar has a security-as-a-service solution that we can enable partners with, and they can go to market with a very robust system, from WatchGuard and others, that have a complete software solution wrapped up that they can drop into place and have a nice, robust security around the solutions, the Edge devices, that they’re putting into place. So that’s another opportunity out there.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I think, to boil down everything you’re saying, the opportunity space is changing. Some things people were doing—maybe they’re not doing or they’re doing differently, or they’re investing less in what-have-you. But there’s also a tremendous amount of opportunity across pretty much every market segment for new applications. And, to the point that Mark was making, especially as folks are looking to move into a new phase of business—whether that’s a restaurant or hospitality, or whatever the case might be—there’s going to be all kinds of new requirements—whether that’s government mandate or just good business practices—that will require some new investments in technology. And I think that’s a pretty exciting thing for resellers and systems integrators to be able to take advantage of.

But I think there’s going to be a few things that are required for folks to be able to fully take advantage of these opportunities. I think part of what you touched on is that there’s going to be a lot of new technologies that are needed—so, things like AI for things like ensuring people have got their masks on properly. Or things like the security aspects that you mentioned—that may not be things that folks have been implementing before. So I’d love to hear what you see as being the biggest challenges facing systems integrators and resellers and the like for implementing these new technologies—where the biggest stumbling blocks might lie.

Mark Fraker: I’m going to say the first one is financing. The reason I say that is because the solutions that are coming out—and we talked about this earlier—are based on a consumption model. And that consumption model is no longer just: time. Like if you use the software another month, well, then you pay for another month of the software. And these new technologies—it’s consumption of X, and X is all different kinds of things. An example of that would be in blockchain solutions: that consumption of X, where X is in some cases a number of gigs that are locked down and secured; whereas in another blockchain solution it might be the number of transactions. If you took something like last-mile delivery, consumption of X could be the number of parcels delivered. In another one, it’s the number of miles delivered. And even in another one, it’s the number of transactions.

So what’s becoming very complicated is—how do you bill for all those new different types of consumption models? And when you think that by the year 2024, 40% of our channel is going to retire—well, that still holds true for all of the folks that we’re selling these solutions to as well. And then by the next year, 2025, 75% of the channel owners are going to be millennials or younger. And the thing is, they consume technology totally differently than the baby boomers. So this is going to become even more important: how do you go out and find answers still, and set up this new consumption model?

I think the second problem, or the second challenge, is really the hiring of the right resources. Just to give an example: it’s no longer a “data analyst,” as what it was called for many years; but now there’s many institutions that have studies for data scientists, and it’s an entirely different skill set to a large degree—to go out and incorporate that into all of these AI solutions. And then I think one of the other challenges is the integration of new technologies into their current offering, and relying on more partnerships. Because of all the APIs that are out there, a lot of these tech companies are coming into the market, and rather than trying to go out and sell part of the solution, it’s much easier to sell some of the solution, but they have to incorporate all of these new partners. And the question becomes, how do you pick the right partner, right?

Nothing is worse than picking a partner and it not working out, and having to restart back over in a short period of time. So, on my list, I think those are the top three. Dean, you probably have a different list, or—

Dean Reverman: No, I’m going to actually keep going on that partner one, because I had that on my bullet list as well. And you’re absolutely right. As I mentioned, it’s that tech stack that I think a lot of systems integrators are now being forced to understand even more than they had in the past. Developing that ecosystem, as you stated, Mark, is so very critical. And the key there is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to be the systems integrator out there that develops the next whiz-bang whatever. Things are happening in way too fast of a speed in order for that to occur. You just need to be able to connect your cart to the right solutions, and have things that can vet the solutions out there.

Now, when you work with partners—and I would obviously advocate a partner like BlueStar, work with a distributor like BlueStar—we have programs like TEConnect that are specifically designed for this—to help the ecosystem out there of resellers, of solutions integrators, MSPs, understand what’s happening in the marketplace, and trying to connect the dots so that we can all be healthier at the end. Understand that the vendors are moving in this direction too. They completely understand the fact that the, if you will, the necessity of having an ecosystem and developing that. So I would encourage solutions integrators even more today to look at their vendors and what they’re doing, and make sure that you’re partnering up with them. Because they as well are vetting some of these solutions out there, and getting a better understanding of what’s happening in the marketplace.

A lot of neat things come out of that. I mean, for example—and, Mark, I know you and I have been involved in this with a company like FaceMe working with Advantech. I mean, here you have a facial recognition company that really, I don’t—

Kenton Williston: Number one in the world, actually.

Dean Reverman: Number one in the world, right. You have to be able to get with the right partners, like a FaceMe, who can develop those types of solutions. They’ve got great support behind infrastructure, they understand the channel, they understand how to do OpEx business models, they understand how to work with vendors. And so navigating that field sometimes can be a challenge.

Mark Fraker: Sure. I mean, they’ve got 200 patents to their company, right?

Dean Reverman: Right.

Mark Fraker: That’s the type of partner you need, to be successful.

Dean Reverman: One hundred percent. And because facial recognition is one of those opportunities, it’s not going away. When you think of the advantages that it brings, it just brings us this advantage of convenience—whether you’re opening a door, whether you’re unlocking your bank account securely, whether you’re—whatever it is, you’re going to start seeing a lot more of that being in place. So, yeah, I’m with you, Mark. I think the tech stack is definitely one. And then getting back to the financial, and I think we’ll get a little bit more into this, Kenton, right? Some of the financial considerations of how our world is changing now that we’ve had—and not just in COVID, but post-COVID—and where the whole community is going. Right?

Kenton Williston: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, to the point you’re making there, historically the way that resellers and systems integrators and folks like that made their money was by installing equipment, selling solutions, things like that. And I actually, a long, long time ago—I’d rather not say how long—worked for one such company. I used to install computer networks in school systems back in the Midwest, where I grew up.

Dean Reverman: There you go.

Kenton Williston: Yeah. So, I mean, the entirety of the business model was to go in there. I was crawling through all kinds of odd spaces in these public schools to run physical cables, and that’s where the money was made. Right?

Dean Reverman: Yes.

Kenton Williston: And, of course, there’s still money to be made that way. But to the point that I think you were hinting at, I think that the way the business models are evolving for systems integrators, resellers, MSPs, is that there’s a greater opportunity to—instead of having everything driven by CapEx, be driven by OpEx. So I wonder if you could say a little bit more about why that trend is happening, and what it is that you think folks need to do to be able to successfully make that transition in their business model.

Mark Fraker: Agreed. I think the biggest challenge around that for the tech companies is it’s not just the services and software that are put into a subscription model, but you need to incorporate the hardware. And that’s what’s being demanded by the younger generations. They grew up with it through the cell phone companies and such. The hardware was included in the program that was out there. However, when you start talking about purpose-built equipment that’s used in these solutions that are going outside, inside the freezers, and out into the hot sun and such, and being dropped and weather and everything else, the equipment’s more expensive. And when you have that, there’s not a lot of companies out there that are getting involved in having some type of subscription service where you can have hardware, software, and services—and BlueStar realized this.

This is something that a couple of years ago—actually going back about five years—we tried to work with different financial institutions, and really didn’t have any takers until finally we found a financial institution that we partnered with. And now we have the ability to take hardware, software, and services to any percent mix and match that you have, and go out and offer them as a subscription-base, or OpEx, solution. But if the reseller chooses, they can be paid upfront, 100%, at the day of installation. Now, if they want, they can go 80/20: get 80% upfront, 20% over the life of the contract, and on a monthly basis—50/50, 70/30, whatever they want. So it’s very, very lucrative, and it makes it easy for the tech companies to go out and sell this: offer the OpEx and be paid in a CapEx.

I think the other advantage is—if I said to most of the people on this podcast, “Are you going to be using the same cell phone in three years?” Your answer’s probably no. Right? You want new technology. So why would any of us expect our customers to use the same technology three, four, five years later? Why wouldn’t they want to take advantage of 5G, and so on? It makes all of our applications and our solutions run better, so why not provide that? So the other component that we added is called a Rip-and-Replace, where after three, four or five years we’ll come in with a reseller and replace all of the hardware, all the software and the services input at the back end, and start all over again.

So from the end user standpoint they’re getting the newest and greatest solution out there, both from software services and the hardware. And the reseller—it makes it very sticky for the tech company to retain that account. So I think those are a couple of things that we’ve noticed that are so important as this is starting to change and move over to an OpEx. And so we had to have something that would fit every tech company’s business plan—whether they had a direct sales model or an indirect sales model. And this program really opened up doors. And to the point that when we got involved in COVID last year, a finance company that we work with—and it’s still in place today as we speak—is that they offer deferred-payment plans.

Dean Reverman: That’s right.

Mark Fraker: So if you need to bring in a deal into a new quarter, or if you need longer times for payback because of COVID, this was a great way to do it. And it wasn’t just three or four months. We had some people that were asking for one-year deferred payments. So very, very lucrative program.

Dean Reverman: Yeah. And to Mark’s point and, Ken, the work the way you cued it up—it is really a changing landscape. I mean, the subscription wave is here, right? I mean, I don’t know where we are in the wave, but it’s definitely happening. And when you look at the younger generations, the way the millennials buy—just the behavior of the society—it is much more embraced today than it ever was in the past. I love your analogy, Kenton, of crawling through the crawl spaces and running wire. There’s always going to be a need for that, but the way the companies are funding it—completely different today. And the need has to be there.

So as solutions integrators are out there, they have to understand that they have to stay on the edge of this, they have to be in the driver’s seat. And the financing tool is absolutely a way to do that. Now, the Hybrid SaaS program that Mark just spoke about, there aren’t that many of those in the universe out there. We feel like we’re very unique in that. But what that does, Ken, is it really helps these solutions integrators bridge the gap. I mean, you can’t just flip the switch one day and go from a CapEx model over to an OpEx model. Or it’s very difficult to do that without a significant amount of planning, and maybe some deals that are very advantageous towards that. So you need to be able to bridge the gap, and we can help folks through some of those financing things. But a really good question there.

Kenton Williston: Some interesting things I think both of you have raised about the merits of this CapEx approach—I think in particular, this Rip-and-Replace program you’ve been talking about is pretty noteworthy. Usually I think when people contemplate an OpEx business model, it’s like, “Well, I’m going to get my physical infrastructure set, and then I’ll have services that run on that, and that’ll be the subscription.” And what you’re pointing to is something that has been common—like in the IT space, where either the companies themselves or the resellers would have ongoing refresh: so that every-so-many years everybody in the company has a new laptop, so they’re not running on something that’s old and crusty. And it’s also common in the consumer space, right?

Like you’ve got an Apple+ kind of plan, where every year you can get a new phone. And I think it just makes sense for the commercial IoT space as well. Because, to your point, the hardware does change rapidly and new generations—whether it’s the communications or the processing performance—like we’ve been talking about AI a lot, for example. And right now we’re in a very hot development time for what kind of AI capabilities are possible through the hardware. So what’s going to be possible two years from now is going to be different—very different from what’s possible today from a hardware perspective. So that all totally makes sense to me.

Dean Reverman: And if I could—not just that, but let’s also remember or recall, right, Mark? We can, through a program like Hybrid SaaS, you can—and the solutions integrator needs to understand this—it’s not just the hardware, not just the software, which are important, but also services. A lot of times the training is a part of the services that they’re providing—not only just initially, but ongoing as well. So those services that these solutions integrators are providing today, those can be wrapped into these OpEx solutions as well. And that’s a critical point there.

Kenton Williston: It’s something that I’ve been thinking about—hearing this very radical shift in how resellers, systems integrators, MSPs can approach their model—is how do you approach your customer and say, “Hey, we want to do business a little differently.” Or the customer is raising their hand—or what does that sales pitch look like to actually make that very new kind of business possible?

Mark Fraker: I think sometimes it comes down to the solutions that are out there. I’ll give you a great example. So, for hospitality in 2020 we saw some decline in the technology spend, but not as great as what we saw. We saw a shift in the technology spend. So rather than that technology spend coming within, let’s say, for point of sale, 20 feet inside the front door, it all went outside to the curb. And that technology spend was for BOPUS, click and collect, or ROPUS, and also curbside pickup—everything. So I think when that happens, what’s driving it is how those solutions are coming to market. And so they’re saying, “Look, we can make this affordable for you, because the solution that we’re providing has a great ROI on a monthly basis.” I mean, I’ve seen some of the tech companies go in there and say, “You can have a curbside solution for the same cost as drinks for a four top in your restaurant per day.” And when you start talking that type of solution for the hospitality entrepreneur, that makes a tremendous amount of sense for them.

I think that you’re seeing it as, in supply chain and in the DC world, as automation is driving the bottom line of supply chain, for example, right? When you start talking about autonomous vehicles inside a warehouse, or the amount of carousels that are going in and such—they’re doing it because of the labor force that just can’t hire the people to come in and do it. So what they have to do is make their employees much more efficient.

I think one of the best stories around that would be where one of the big-box hardware stores brought in some robots with screens on the front, and people could walk inside the front door and they were greeted by a robot that said, “What are you looking for?” And someone could hold it up in front of the screen, and it would say, “That is called a such-and-such. Here, I can take you to where it is.” And they thought it would have an adverse effect on their labor force—that they would think that they were replacing them, and the opposite happened. Everybody wanted to have that robot in their department to help take care of pricing and inventory and everything else, because it freed them up to have more customer one-on-one experiences. So I think a lot of this has to do with the new solutions that are out there, and what the consumers are demanding of the business owners today.

Dean Reverman: Yeah. And it’s that age-old pivot, right? You always think, “Oh, these robotics are coming in and they’re going to replace. . . .” But you’re absolutely right. And we’ve seen that in other instances as well. But getting back to the point, I guess, on the OpEx, you have to be able to have some financial flexibility in order to offer those types of solutions. And those solutions are very, very rapid. And, Kenton, as we mentioned earlier, that it’s that tech stack as well, that the solutions integrator is walking in the door with. The solutions providers today have to be flexible in offering a broader scope than maybe the niche that they’ve been in for a very long time. It may manifest itself in robotics or automation, as Mark just mentioned. It could manifest itself in a lot of different ways, but having the financial capabilities through programs is key towards that.

Mark Fraker: Yeah. I mean, you look at the SMB market out there—so 90% of the small businesses go under because they’re undercapitalized. It doesn’t matter what vertical they’re in—they’re undercapitalized and that’s why they go under. So when you take something like an OpEx and put it out in front of them, it makes it very attractive for them to continue and take that along their journey. Plus, as Kenton brought up, when you start talking about a Rip-and-Replace, that even makes it more attractive to them, because they know they’re always going to have that best technology out there. And to the younger business owner—they grew up with technology, they demand the best technology. You’re not going to walk into one of their places and there not be 5G.

Dean Reverman: No. They would have a bit of an issue with that. Yeah, absolutely.

Kenton Williston: Now, something I’m curious about—so the ROI angle totally makes sense to me. Another factor that I’m curious about—we talked a little bit about security earlier. And that, to me, seems like a real potential benefit of this sort of approach—that you’re not just one-and-done with your security, but you’ve got a constant watchful eye keeping things up to date. Is that something that end customers find is a compelling selling point for this sort of approach?

Dean Reverman: I think so. In one angle, why that—not only just from the end consumer, but I guess another point here is that solutions integrators really need to become aware of the legal issues as it relates to security, and things of that nature. I mean, parts of this channel—vendors, for example—are becoming very deliberate in who they choose to partner with. They want to partner with those that can commit to data ethics—adopt data handling practices that reflect their own values. I mean, what we’re seeing in the marketplace is a need for that, if you will, understanding of the legal issues. I mean, of course you have things like GDPR over in Europe, that is this umbrella, if you will, that handles a lot of the concerns as it relates to that. Here in the United States, it appears as though the adaptation for similar types of things is happening at the state level.

Mark Fraker: I agree with you a hundred percent. And I don’t think we have one vendor that we’re dealing with where the discussion about security comes up. And they, right now, are doing a lot of partnering with companies that you might think that they’re a hardware company, but they’re also a software company, right? So they sell an appliance, but it also comes with a monitoring application to it. So as they go down the road, they’re looking for any rogues that are coming into the enterprise system, notifying people, blocking them, and keeping that particular business safe and secure digitally. It’s something that every RFP that I’m seeing come back from any end user through our reseller channel and up to us when they ask us to participate in—I haven’t seen one in the last probably three, four years that doesn’t have security brought up.

Kenton Williston: Yeah. And this leads me to, I think, real key questions. We’ve talked a lot about the business models, and how critical financing is to enabling all of this. But there’s another aspect that I can imagine would be pretty frightening, frankly, to a reseller or an MSP or a systems integrator. And that is just the fact that we are talking about a very complicated combination of technologies. We’re talking about [inaudible] retail space, for example. You’re not just dealing with a point of sale system anymore, but now you’ve got to think about AI and facial recognition and all these security concerns and have the robots wander around your store. And most of these are not going to be familiar to you, if you have really been specializing in the point of sale business.

So I’d like to talk a little about how you make that leap from where you’ve been traditionally, to now offering these very sophisticated, complicated solutions. Because I think, and I’m interested to hear your point of view on this, that one of the key things about this is not only to, as you were saying, pick the right partner, but also that those partners need to offer more kinds of holistic solutions. So, like one of the things we’ve talked a lot about on the insight.tech website—which I hope everyone will pop over and visit after listening—are some Intel-certified solutions known as Intel Market Ready Solutions.

And the whole idea of those is that this is something that’s already been deployed, more or less in a form that’s going to be offered to you, and that you can with confidence say, “Yes, this is ready to roll out at scale, and it’s going to include the hardware, the software, the services, the security—all this kind of good stuff.” So I’d love to hear your thoughts on: how do you incorporate all these fantastically complicated, and sometimes new, technologies?

Mark Fraker: I’m going to go back about 12 years. This has always been a problem. As technology has advanced, it has gotten more complicated, especially as you have a lot of these technologies blending together—it’s blurred over the different lines of technologies. And we create—and, in fact, we hold the trademark on—what we call In-a-Box. And we’ve put this out online, so that if someone has an idea similar to what you’re talking about, Ken, where they want to take multiple technologies, multiple solutions, different hardware platforms, and bring them together, they can go to this portal and start answering questions and laying out what their ideas are and how it all fits together.

When they hit “submit” on that, it comes into Dean’s and my group and goes to a group of specialists that specialize in retail or government or healthcare, and hospitality, digital signage—different technologies and verticals. So we have solutions across all verticals like that to help people understand: “This is my goal, this is what I’m trying to do.” And then we take our resources, match them up, and try and help them find some incremental new revenue along the way.

Dean Reverman: And that’s a critical point there. I mean, Ken, to the beginning of your question there, it is really hard for a solutions integrator to understand and to navigate that world. I mean, I came out of that world; I completely understand what it’s like to be in charge of a company’s direction. There you are—you do your day-to-day, but there’s other opportunities out there. When you look at MRSs from an Intel and our case, things like that, or the In-a-Box, as Mark was just mentioning—in our case, In-a-Box is an answer to the market demand for the need to solution. So what I would advocate to solutions integrators—in order to take a step you need to dip a toe in a particular area. Look for such things as the Market Ready Solutions from Intel, and/or the In-a-Box solutions that we have, because these will help you get there. Why? Because they’re holistic solutions that have been vetted to a certain degree.

For example, we’re developing market-ready solutions right now with Intel, with great partners like Seneca and Navori on digital signage. We understand that there’s a lot of solutions integrators out there, that as businesses start opening up they saw the advantage that digital signage brought to the marketplace in being able to do real-time messages—counting people, and things like that. Well, that’s going to continue to be pervasive throughout. So how do you get into that? How do you vet those types of solutions? Well, you look at market ready solutions that are available there. That’s just one example.

We talked about facial recognition—yet another solution that we’re developing right now with Intel and FaceMe and Advantech. So again, I’ll just answer it by saying there are entities out there like BlueStar, like Intel, that are putting resources behind these solutions, vetting the partners along the way. So as a solutions integrator continues to develop their tech stacks, they should look at somebody like a BlueStar and the programs that they have in place to help them get down that path. They don’t have to feel like they’re out on an island. There are resources out there in those ways, and they should be utilizing them.

Kenton Williston: To kind of wrap up everything I think I’m hearing you say: it’s that we’re in an environment now where there is an opportunity—and perhaps even a requirement—a need for systems integrators to rethink the entirety of their business model, which can be a pretty frightening proposition. But the reality is there are a lot of things, a lot of resources available to them, that can make that exercise actually pretty painless, because they have resources with companies like BlueStar, with Intel. Folks who can not only help them make the leap to the new technologies and to being able to actually offer the sort of sophisticated services, but even the financing and the training to not have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, on all these fronts, and to be able to fairly seamlessly make this transition.

Dean Reverman: Yeah. And that’s it, Ken, and I don’t know that we need to scare people in saying they’ve got to change their business model tomorrow. But I definitely would think that solutions integrators are—if they have a long-term plan, a two-year, a three-year, a five-year plan—they should be morphing into these types of things, so that they can continue to progress and take advantage of where the marketplaces are going as it relates to OpEx, as it relates to these types of solutions. And, yes, sometimes it is difficult to do, but understand that there’s partners out there that have resources that you can lean on to do that and build on your ecosystem. It’s critical. It’s going to be critical for solutions integrators moving forward.

Kenton Williston: Excellent. Well that just leads me in to say, thank you so much to both of you for joining us.

Dean Reverman: Absolutely. It was a pleasure being here.

Mark Fraker: Thank you very much, Ken.

Kenton Williston: Yeah. So, Mark, Dean—where’s the best place for folks to find BlueStar online?

Dean Reverman: Well, yeah, go to bluestarinc.com. That’s where you can find us. @thinkbluestar is where you want to find us in Twitter. Of course, you can find us on Instagram as well. And we have a LinkedIn profile as well. So any of your social needs—that’d be the best way to get us, is see us there.

Kenton Williston: Fabulous. Well, thanks again so much for your time. This was really an interesting and enlightening conversation.

Dean Reverman: Very good. Thank you. Thank you once again, Ken.

Mark Fraker: Yeah, thanks, Ken. Appreciate it.

Kenton Williston: And thanks to our listeners for joining us. This has been the IoT Chat. If you enjoyed listening, please support us by subscribing and rating us on your favorite podcast app. We’ll be back next time with more ideas from industry leaders at the forefront of IoT design.

The IIoT Powers LV Substation Innovation

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Electric utilities are under increasing pressure to tackle challenges they face today and into the future. Severe weather events, unplanned outages, restoration response times, and aging equipment are just a few of the problems impacting the energy ecosystem. And with the growth of renewables, the grid is evolving from one-way power delivery to an infrastructure that can accommodate two-way energy flow.

Utilities need to operate in a smooth, synchronous way at all times. But what we’re experiencing today is constant fluctuation. Take solar, for example. At times, too much photovoltaic (PV)-produced electricity may come back to the grid and stress the infrastructure. And with sudden weather changes, there’s not enough power, and the load shifts back to the grid. With that constant stress, the infrastructure risks failing.

New technologies such as powerful edge compute, artificial intelligence, and machine learning enable utilities to innovate—solving ongoing challenges and creating new opportunities. And much of it is happening at the distributed substation level.

Deploying IIoT sensors and other devices at the LV substation—connecting equipment such as transformers, switch gears, and breakers—is opening the door to transformative applications. Collecting, normalizing, and centralizing asset data enables real-time intelligence that can predict asset life cycles and detect failures before they happen. As more and more information is collected, you can begin to build predictive and preventive maintenance schedules.

“We’re providing an out-of-the-box product that makes it easier for utility service providers to install and configure an IoT-based solution…” —@prasanthgopal, @kalkitech CEO

Out-of-the-Box Edge Computing and Analytics

Kalkitech, a global provider of smart grid technology and solutions, is making digitization possible with its LV Substation Solution (Video 1).

Video 1. Utilities can achieve digital transformation by starting at the LV substation. (Source: Kalkitech)

“We’re providing an out-of-the-box solution that makes it easier for utilities and EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) service providers to install and configure an IoT-based solution to digitize the Low Voltage (LV) Substation,” says Kalkitech CEO Prasanth Gopalakrishnan. “The kit enables data collection from 30-year-old legacy equipment to the latest assets, via a range of sensors. And then you have centralized visibility to what is happening across your distribution network.”

The solution consists of an Intel® processor-based edge gateway and Kalki.io Edge Software—also called SyncConnect. Kalki.io is a cloud-based device management and monitoring portal to oversee edge equipment and access field devices, all from one central location. The software aggregates and filters the data from all the various LV substation assets for analysis before sending it to the cloud.

Remote monitoring and logging of field device health doesn’t simply reduce the amount of costly truck rolls. It is essential to minimizing downtime and improving the grid’s operational efficiency.

“Unless you have visibility to the data and what’s happening in the field, there is nothing you can do to prevent an outage or take proactive measures before things fail,” says Gopalakrishnan. “Once you have that information, you can take immediate actions at the control center where you have a complete, real-time view of the network.

As utilities begin to modernize in this way, it opens new business opportunities for EPCs and operational technology SIs that may have limited experience in deploying digital transformation technologies like AI and ML. The Kalkitech LV monitoring kit enables integrators to help customers innovate, solidifying their value-add and staying ahead of the competition.

Visibility and Scalability at Tata Power

Kalkitech currently has an LV substation digitization pilot underway with Tata Power-Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL). While TPDDL has been monitoring its MV grid, this proof of concept demonstrates a scalable IoT solution it can expand to monitor the LV side.

India, like many nations, is seeing a rapid increase in rooftop solar and the number of EVs tapping into the LV grid. The ability to monitor and identify weak points in the substations is critical for TPDDL to reduce outages and improve restoration times.

As utilities like TPDDL move toward this data-driven model achieving visibility and granularity at the edge of the grid, they will have necessary information to take intelligent actions. With full visibility to that last mile, an operator receiving a problem report might look for harmonics in the network and transformers that are not working correctly. It may then choose to temporarily shut off some of the solar coming into the substations until everything is stabilized. This enables avoiding an outage, preventing equipment problems, or improving the power quality of that neighborhood without ever having to send out a truck.

Overall, in modernizing its infrastructure in this way, TPDDL can lower cost of operations, gain new revenue opportunities, and improve customer service.

Partnerships Smooth the Power Curve

As Kalkitech and its customers’ needs grow, the company needed expandable solutions with minimal software modifications. Partnering with Intel® allows the company to build a reliable, scalable architecture. Utilities can use the same solution for any size substation and collect as little or as much data as they need, making it a seamless option for operators of all sizes.

Gopalakrishnan summarizes, “By deploying technology we have created together with Intel, utilities can smooth the curve and increase substation reliability while keeping costs down.”

Software-Based AV Systems Integration Gives IT Teams Control

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

From an IT perspective, audiovisual (AV) equipment might as well be alien technology. Most AV systems use legacy platforms understood by only a tiny number of specialists. Only rarely can these systems connect to a wider IT infrastructure. In fact, AV systems from different manufacturers usually aren’t even compatible with one another.

As a result, specialized integrators must be called in when components need to be replaced or upgraded. “Every time you want to do something different in the AV space, you have to do a forklift rip-and-replace,” says Jason Moss, Vice President of Alliances and Market Development at QSC, an AV connectivity solutions provider and manufacturer.

It’s a time-consuming, expensive, and frustrating process for IT teams, who have trouble controlling and managing AV systems themselves, as they do the rest of the company’s technology. The problem has become more acute in recent years with the escalated need to update technology to support more hybrid collaboration environments. But because “ripping and replacing” a traditional AV system can be such a daunting task, many companies miss out on new technologies that can better enable their day-to-day business needs.

Uniting AV Equipment with Software

Working with an AV system that is software based, such as the Q-SYS Ecosystem from QSC, allows audio, video, and control processing to be integrated in a single piece of hardware. This greatly reduces audiovisual integration complexities, making it simpler for IT teams to monitor and manage. Being software-based also means that features and functionality can be added in the future through simple firmware updates.

Not only is it software-based, Q-SYS is built around an open IT-friendly ecosystem that leverages the power of Intel processing to deliver features and functionality at the software level. Doing so greatly reduces the need for disparate, single-purpose hardware found in traditional AV control systems. This approach is intended to make AV much more accessible to IT support staff that is now tasked with managing these types of systems. This new paradigm also allows additional endpoints without requiring complex programming that only a high-end specialist understands (Figure 1).

Figure 1. A software-based system makes AV integration simpler and more streamlined for monitoring and management. (Source: QSC)
Figure 1. A software-based system makes AV integration simpler and more streamlined for monitoring and management. (Source: QSC)

“With a software-defined platform, hardware no longer immediately depreciates from the moment of installation. Instead, utility and value increases with time as feature sets and functionality are added at the software level without additional hardware,” added Moss.

Avanade, a leading digital innovator in IT services, illustrates how an enterprise can improve control of AV equipment management and gain flexibility while saving money. Avanade embraced the software-based IT-friendly model when upgrading their office locations.

The Seattle-based company wanted to provide a seamless, high-quality AV experience not only for its 800 headquarters employees, but also for workers in 45 other locations. After adopting Q-SYS, the company’s IT operations team were able to view and configure AV equipment in all locations from their offices in Chicago and Toronto.

One such example is when employees wanted to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer competition in their Seattle office. IT workers were able to remotely reconfigure equipment in meeting rooms to broadcast the games in multiple meeting rooms simultaneously. Once the games ended, they reverted the rooms to standard operations with the click of a mouse.

Benefits of an Open Architecture System

Being an open software architecture platform also expands the possibilities for integrating with third-party devices. From microphones to building management systems, if it is network-based with an open API, Q-SYS can integrate it. Q-SYS uses Lua, a modern and open programming language to allow for simple integration of common devices that can also be monitored and managed along with the rest of the system from a single pane of glass.

In the absence of a crystal ball, companies with software-based AV are positioning themselves to transition to future capabilities that have not even been dreamed up yet. Shifting to these new technologies without delay or friction could provide a significant edge over competitors. “Technology moves fast,” says Moss. “With a modern Intel-based infrastructure, companies can continue to improve their AV solutions with software for years to come.”

 

This article was edited by Christina Cardoza, Associate Editorial Director for insight.tech.

This article was originally published on March 12, 2021.

Scale Up Remote Work With Smarter VDI

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

As companies look to a post-pandemic future, many are opting to retain remote-work arrangements. A survey by Gartner found that 82 percent of company leaders plan for remote work at least part of the week, and nearly half will allow employees to work from home full-time.

Since a distributed workforce is here to stay, the onus is on IT departments to create an architecture that supports it. Among other changes, the stopgap systems put in place during the crisis will need to be replaced by more sustainable solutions—and that often entails a move to cost-effective, scalable, and secure virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

Just one problem: Deploying and managing a VDI solution can be complex and costly. “A robust VDI solution requires infrastructure plus the necessary software stack to deliver a strong user experience,” says Srihari Angaluri, technical director for software and solutions for Lenovo, a leading provider of data center infrastructure solutions. If you were to do this piecemeal, it would be very arduous and error-prone.”

A Simpler Approach to VDI

To address these challenges, Lenovo combined forces with VMware and Intel to create an end-to-end solution, the Lenovo VMware Horizon VDI (Figure 1). “We simplify the process by doing all of the necessary groundwork to validate the solution,” explains Angaluri. “We consolidate everything onto the centralized infrastructure and deliver it as a service.”

Figure 1. Lenovo VMware Horizon VDI architecture provides an end-to-end solution, connecting distributed devices to a centralized server for optimized compute, network, and storage functions. (Source: Lenovo)
Figure 1. Lenovo VMware Horizon VDI architecture provides an end-to-end solution, connecting distributed devices to a centralized server for optimized compute, network, and storage functions. (Source: Lenovo)

Integrated with VMware’s Software-Defined Data Center—which includes vSphere, vSAN, and NSX—VMware Horizon enables IT departments to dynamically allocate resources, simplifying management while lowering costs. Tested and optimized for a wide variety of use cases, the solution also has robust security and disaster recovery features.

To deliver a consistent experience, VMware Horizon VDI leverages Intel® Optane persistent memory. “We’re able to break the barriers of traditional memory limitations that exist per processor,” says Todd Myrick, global product marketing manager for Lenovo. “We plug Intel Optane persistent memory into a regular DRAM slot, and in doing so we greatly increase the memory footprint. Anytime you reduce your server footprint, you drive down a lower network infrastructure cost and reduce licensing, power, cooling, and maintenance costs in the data center.”

“It’s much easier to operate a VDI environment with hyperconverged architecture,” says Lenovo’s Srihari Angaluri

Creating a VDI Solution For the Long Term

For a long-term solution, scalability is a key consideration. VMware Horizon is certified for use with the Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series server, which offers a hyperconverged architecture that is superior to traditional three-tier architecture.

In a three-tier data center, the compute, network, and storage servers are three individual entities managed by three different groups. Hyperconverged infrastructure eliminates that complexity by combining the computer and storage servers into a single entity.

“The system, which is typically a two-socket server, becomes a building block,” says Angaluri. “You can combine multiple quantities into a cluster for linear scalability to increase capacity. And there is no need to add external storage.”

Hyperconverged architecture is especially attractive for VDI workloads, where you are hosting or consolidating user desktops. “If you support 150 users on one node and your company grows three times in the course of a year, you just add two more nodes,” says Jeff Huxtable, solutions marketing manager for Lenovo. “Likewise, you can spin down the nodes quickly. It’s much easier to operate a VDI environment with hyperconverged architecture.”

A Solution For Every Worker

A tech company that develops high-end software recently deployed VMware Horizon—a verified Intel® Select Solution—to its workforce due to the robust capabilities and cost savings the system can deliver.

“Their compute requirements are pretty high because they’re doing interactive modeling in 3D, running heavy-use stress tests,” says Angaluri. “Since they started working remotely, their software developers needed access to data that was located in remote data centers. They also wanted to reduce latency and have the ability to push out updates to remote workstations.”

The company also needed strong storage servers. A typical office work VDI use case would require between 20 and 50 IOPS from the storage measure. “With this particular customer, these desktops were driving upwards of 5,000 to 8,000 IOPS per desktop,” says Angaluri. “That’s pretty I/O intensive, so we had to design a VDI solution that would meet all those demands.”

For these “power” workers, Lenovo created a higher-end configuration with a two-socket ThinkAgile VX vSAN system as the hyperconverged infrastructure, plus VMware Horizon as the software layer. Lenovo also created a virtual desktop template for this special category of users to easily spin up/down virtual desktops on demand and added graphics acceleration adapters to the system for increased compute power.

“With our configuration, we can support more users in the future as necessary without having to reprovision the hardware,” says Angaluri. “We can support each type of worker with the right kind of system configuration.”

“Customers are asking us, ‘How can you help me improve my return on investment? How can you help me realize more VDIs per server? And how can you help me maximize the resources that are required to implement the solution?’” says Myrick. “VMware Horizon VDI systems configurator eliminates the guesswork. Our customers experience a smooth deployment and deliver a workload optimized configuration to their users—now and in the future.”

CV and AI: The Recipe For Online Food Delivery

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Cloud kitchens were born out of the ride-sharing phenomenon of the 2010s, which quickly provided the infrastructure for low-cost food delivery. But while cloud or “ghost” kitchens are like those at most traditional restaurants in terms of function and appearance, that’s about where the similarities end.

As the name implies, cloud kitchens are remote food preparation centers without a traditional dining area. Orders come in over the Internet, food is prepared, and then either picked up by the customer but more often delivered. With the COVID-19 pandemic limiting in-restaurant dining, take-out-only eateries are popping up everywhere.

But while Internet-driven experiences have become commonplace and acceptable in other industries, they can still be disconcerting when it comes to perishable, ready-to-eat food. The real challenge is instilling peace of mind in their customers, and ensuring repeatable, high-quality meal standards. To do so, cloud kitchens and delivery companies like Uber Eats and Takeaway.com are now making the entire process, from prep to delivery, transparent across the web.

Serving Meals With AI Technology

Whereas traditional restaurants use a comparatively “analog” process of passing an order from patron to waiter to cook, there are no waiters in the automated cloud kitchen. The waiter is now an app that links to platforms like the Smart Food QC, from UdyogYantra Technologies, a developer of AI & IoT-based products for food & agriculture.

“The platform helps digitize the food as it moves from raw ingredients to cooking to final food in an assembly line—providing a seamless food experience for customers,” says Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of UdyogYantra. To achieve this, the smart food solution combines order, cooking, inventory, and quality management systems alongside a “food dash” (delivery) system in a modular edge computing platform (Video 1).

Video 1. The Smart Food QC is an automated quality management system for restaurant kitchen and delivery staff. (Source: UdyogYantra Technologies)

Under the hood of the platform, operators will find an API-based platform that supports multiple cameras, thermal imaging devices, a label scanner, and other sensors. The whole system is controlled by an Intel® Celeron® processor, which also executes deep learning computer vision (CV) algorithms developed using the Intel® OpenVINO™ Toolkit.

The CV model consists of three layers, including one that verifies the item is food and a second and third that identify the type of food it is. Thanks to optimizations enabled by the OpenVINO environment, two of the three GPU-intensive layers are executed locally on the edge.

In operation, the Smart Food QC helps standardize and improve the efficiency of meal preparation in several ways. First, the label scanner ensures that only the correct ingredients are used in the appropriate amounts. Then, the cameras and thermal sensors bring an element of quality control, checking things like the weight, temperature, and appearance of a dish before approving it for delivery. Finally, the system applies a QR code to the meal container that is used for tracking during the delivery process.

Once meal prep is complete, open APIs allow the kitchen to expose the collected data to partners and customers via a web interface. This can include information about the chef, meal status, and so on.

The QC solution helps standardize food quality, guarantees that dishes meet sanitation and quality control requirements, and offers customers peace of mind. via @insightdottech

Increase Quality, Lower Costs

The mechanisms described above provide insight into meal preparation that can help standardize food quality, guarantee that dishes meet sanitation and quality control requirements, and offer customers peace of mind. But the benefits of the Smart Food QC can also extend far beyond these parameters to elevate the overall functioning of the entire cloud kitchen.

For instance, by correlating ingredient data captured by the label scanner with the inventory management system, the UdyogYantra system can provide a real-time count of available stock—keeping the kitchen staff aware of what’s on hand at any given moment. The information can also be used to trigger automated actions, such as reordering additional supplies when inventory reaches a predetermined quantity.

And just as important to restaurant management, automating the meal prep process can help reduce costs by minimizing overfilled dishes, food waste in preparation, and customer order rejections.

“Apart from the digital experience, this is where the Smart Food QC actually helps customers save costs and achieve more profitability,” says Jain. “We see a break-even in six months, and in a store doing 300 daily orders, for example, there’s an 8% direct addition to the bottom line.”

Connecting to the Supply Chain

Technology innovations in the cloud kitchen are allowing an unprecedented level of insight into operations—a win-win for consumers and businesses alike. But the potential benefits do not end there. Thanks to standard APIs and the IoT, cloud kitchens can reach far into the connected supply chain to learn about things like food shortages so they can tweak menus well in advance.

Here, where efficiency meets quality, is what the tech-driven culinary experience is all about.

Accelerate IoT Analytics at the Retail Edge

Posted on by Pete Berta

From tracking inventory to measuring customer engagement, innovative edge technology is transforming the retail industry. There’s just one challenge: The different platforms used to run daily operations live in silos.

Currently, retail solution builders must create custom implementations for their solutions, but multiple devices and sensors limit cohesive, actionable insights due to system data fragmentation. Individual use cases, such as inventory management, loss prevention, and customer engagement, create data that resides in multiple cloud or edge platforms. But that information is locked inside the solutions, with no unified dashboard to view them as a whole and combine insights.

The answer lies in ready-to-deploy, in an open data ingestion framework that unites disparate sensor protocols and corresponding data streams to create scalable end-to-end solutions. By combining powerful edge compute technologies, systems can generate new use cases with insightful real-time analytics. As a result, retailers now have new business opportunities that were previously impossible or difficult to execute and scale.

An Open Platform for Retail Analytics

HP Engage Edge—powered by Intel® processor-based gateways and the open-source EdgeX Foundry platform—are making these new opportunities possible. Out of the box, the HP gateway comes preloaded with a sensor and cloud-agnostic software stack so ISVs and solution builders can avoid time-consuming custom hardware and software integration.

“This is the first retail product that commercializes the EdgeX framework, where purpose-built hardware is preloaded with data ingestion software,” says Sandip Kamat, Global Strategist for HP’s Advanced Compute Solutions.

ISVs can use any sensor or any cloud API to remotely manage their containers and apps. It’s simply a matter of picking the use case and picking the sensor(s), such as cameras, Bluetooth beacons, or RFID. The box will talk to them all, so a solution builder can focus on their core competency—analyzing the data streams to create actionable insights (Video 1).

Video 1. Sensor fusion with HP Engage Edge allows ISVs to create a variety of use cases. (Source: HP)

“This is the first retail product that commercializes the EdgeX framework, where purpose-built hardware is preloaded with data ingestion software.” @sankam, @HP

New Possibilities for ISVs

IoT has been a fragmented space, but open-platform systems can invigorate and expand innovations. For example, a fast-food restaurant that uses sensors to track inventory from delivery to kitchen can leverage the information to improve profitability by reducing waste. “Traditionally, this industry has a very young workforce with a high level of churn, and a need for extensive training,” says Kamat. “When mistakes happen, perishable goods need to be tossed out.”

HP Engage Edge can be connected to RFID readers that monitor the flow of fresh foods, from boxes being unloaded to the end product being sold. It creates a digitized picture of what is coming in and how long it’s been open. It can also create an alert if an associate opens a box out of order of the expiration date, which could potentially waste inventory. Hooking up this data stream to ordering systems can also automate the entire replenishment process.

Another use case is loss prevention at self-checkouts. Kiosks have grown in popularity since COVID-19, but they open an opportunity for theft. For example, a customer might scan a cheaper bottle of wine while they place a more expensive one in the bag.

“How do you catch that?” asks Kamat. “If you are a theft detection ISV, you typically need to integrate your solution with kiosks and camera sensors: The point of sale is one sensor, catching what is scanned. Then there are two weight scales for pre- and post-purchase. The ISV can install a fourth sensor—a camera—to make sure all of the sensors agree for a correct transaction. And if something doesn’t match up, the analytics software can flag a store manager or associate.”

In the past, ISVs would need to integrate their solution with all kinds of kiosks and sensors. Now, they just need to integrate with HP Engage Edge, which handles all the orchestration.

Growing Opportunities for Retail Analytics

The deployment of edge technologies and analytics is not slowing down. COVID-19 has accelerated the need to address new marketplace norms, such as social distancing, temperature scans, and more.

Many retailers are innovating by offering virtual experiences for customer safety and convenience. For example, ULTA Beauty has an app with virtual augmented reality that allows shoppers to try products before they go to the store. And the home improvement chain Lowe’s launched an app that allows professionals like plumbers or electricians to take measurements and choose the right products via virtual trips to their customers’ homes.

“The tools have improved so much that it’s like placing yourself in the store and trying things on,” says Kamat. “All of this together gives a good sense of how the future could look, deploying resources in a different way when technology can handle these use cases. If you have all these sensors, somebody needs to bring them all together to create a canvas of the data streams happening in your store. Retail experts will have all this information at their fingertips and can use the insights in new ways. HP is playing a beneficial role in that future.”

How a Museum Transforms Operations with HCI

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

Like many organizations, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights was rapidly outgrowing its data center. On-premises infrastructure was inadequate for managing ticketing, billing, and hundreds of interactive multimedia displays. Storage closets bulged with mountains of archived tapes, including sole copies of interviews with human rights activists.

Every time the museum wanted to expand anything, it had to buy new hardware, says Howard Lo, vice president of sales and marketing at hybrid cloud computing company DataON. Because growth was unpredictable, the organization sometimes invested in excess capacity that went unused for years.

Working with DataON, the museum created a better solution: a Microsoft Azure Stack hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) for managing its operations, storage, and disaster recovery.

Azure Stack HCI virtualizes compute, storage, and networking, and unites them on a single platform, easing management and improving performance while adding flexibility and lowering expenses. It shares the same Hyper-V based software-defined compute, storage, and networking as Azure Stack, as well as rigorous testing and validation criteria. Plus, Azure Stack HCI allows you to seamlessly embrace hybrid cloud, connecting your data center to Azure services.

“With Azure Stack HCI, you aren’t tied to a hardware vendor’s requirements,” Lo explains. “You can scale when you need more capacity, and at a much lower cost than traditional SANs or HCI solutions.”

The museum’s operations now run faster and more smoothly. “When ticketing and billing operators tried the new system, their reaction was, ‘Wow!’” says Lo.

Azure Stack HCI also gave the museum agile, inexpensive storage and backup, and created a modern disaster recovery system.

Equally important, the museum’s solution gave it a modern IT architecture that can easily incorporate cutting-edge technologies as they develop (Video 1). “Museum executives now have peace of mind, knowing they have the latest technology and a secure solution they can scale in the future,” Lo says.

Video 1. Canadian Museum for Human Rights powers its on-premises data center with the DataON solution for Azure Stack HCI.

Modern HCI solutions can also bring data centers the latest cloud-based capabilities, allowing for easy and continuous innovation. @dataon

Maximizing HCI Performance

To optimize Azure Stack HCI benefits, organizations must start with the right hardware, which is the foundation of virtualization. “Without a great hardware infrastructure, you’re not going to get the most efficient performance,” Lo says.

As an Intel® Select Solutions partner, DataON collaborates with Intel® to develop the hardware components and network connections best suited for a company’s particular workloads. Working closely with the Intel Select team, which pre-validates and pre-certifies its designs, the company can ensure that it delivers the right architecture to customers.

Gaining Access to Innovations

Modern HCI solutions can also bring data centers the latest cloud-based capabilities, allowing for easy and continuous innovation. DataON works exclusively with Microsoft, allowing customers to access its services both through the familiar on-premises tools of Windows Admin Center and through Azure Stack HCI.

“Microsoft developed a solution for both the on-premises environment and the cloud so that companies can make transitions seamlessly across the two,” Lo says. “With Azure Stack HCI, you get all the resiliency, performance, and bandwidth you need, and you can take advantage of Azure services like virtual desktop infrastructure or Kubernetes.”

And with Microsoft’s new Kubernetes Service on Azure Stack HCI, companies manage workloads on premise—requiring fewer resources and making operations more efficient. Data centers often use hundreds of VMs to run applications, and each VM consumes compute and memory resources. With Kubernetes, applications are orchestrated in containers that include multiple VMs. Containers can be shared across workloads and departments without requiring any additional compute or storage capacity.

Flexible Services and Cost Control

Another way Azure Stack HCI makes a big difference to data centers is by providing better options for storage and disaster recovery.

For example, to accommodate the museum’s enormous storage needs, DataON’s Azure Stack HCI solution created four petabytes of Azure-based storage. Obtaining similar on-site capacity without it would have entailed hardware replacement, maintenance fees, and other expenses, costing the organization four times more, according to DataON.

Azure Stack HCI provides a similar solution for disaster recovery, which is prohibitively expensive for many organizations. “With traditional data center architecture, if you want a disaster recovery option, you need to build another data center,” Lo says.

Instead, DataON simply copies an organization’s Azure Stack HCI work functions into low-cost Azure storage and enables Azure’s site recovery service. “If your on-premises infrastructure fails, you can run your entire business off of the Azure cloud,” says Lo.

Companies with more than one location can use a different Azure service, allowing them to “stretch” workloads across two physical sites. If one site goes down, the other takes over. “This capability could cost millions of dollars with a traditional data center infrastructure,” says Lo.

Data Center Monitoring

Azure Stack HCI can also make life easier for IT administrators with Windows Admin Center and DataON MUST. Windows Admin Center is a locally deployed, browser-based management tool that lets you manage Azure Stack HCI and Windows Server systems. It combines with DataON’s MUST extension for Windows Admin Center to provide centralized data center monitoring, management, and alerts from a single console. MUST adds to the Windows Admin Center experience with features such as historic data reporting, disk mapping, system alerts, alert services, call home support, and an inventory management tool.

Email alerts allow IT to monitor on-site infrastructure remotely. “If you’re sitting at home, you’ll get an email saying, ‘Server node number two, drive number three isn’t doing well—make sure you check on it when you get in,’” Lo says.

A Customized HCI Future

As workload requirements for compute, networking, and bandwidth explode, organizations can’t resort to a traditional IT architecture. Lo believes more companies will be turning to HCI to accommodate growing needs.

“Businesses are looking for ways to reduce their costs and increase performance. Azure Stack HCI offers the best way to optimize workloads and scale incrementally. By working with DataON and its partners Intel and Microsoft, companies can ensure they have the right architecture based on their business requirements as they grow.”

AI-Assisted Videoconferencing Taps Into Virtual Meetings

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

From barking dogs to poor lighting that casts dark shadows, we’ve all been in virtual meetings with technical challenges, making it difficult to collaborate. Massive adoption of videoconferencing started as a quick fix during the pandemic, but as companies look forward to a post-COVID workplace, many intend to continue with flexible remote working arrangements. A hybrid model with some employees in the office and others at home redefines the workplace and requires robust scalable technology that connects teams in more meaningful ways.

“Technologies that support a remote workforce will need to evolve to keep up,” says Sudeep Trivedi, head of alliances and go-to-market for Logitech Inc., a leader in video collaboration. “On any given day, 30% to 70% of employees will be working from home. They need to feel like they are truly part of a virtual team. The days of a speakerphone in the middle of a conference room table are over.”

AI Drives New Virtual-Meeting Capabilities

While a hybrid model may be the preferred working arrangement, technology disparities often create an uneven playing field. Employees returning to the workplace can receive high-quality performance from their collaboration tools, with optimized audio and videoconferencing setups. But home-based employees will be at a disadvantage, connecting to meetings from laptop cameras with unflattering angles and uneven home office lighting.

“We believe that users will demand tools that help them look their best so they can be effective in their communication wherever they are for more natural collaboration and relationship building,” says Trivedi.

Innovations in videoconferencing technology can address the discrepancies to foster engaging interactions. Logitech’s Room Solutions, for example, use AI running on Intel® processors that can improve audio and video.

This solution removes background noise, such as typing, a noisy HVAC system, or shuffling papers. Lighting is adjusted to correct for shadows, which are often a problem for home-based workers who lack ideal settings. And AI uses neural-network technology to recognize humans and auto-frame meeting participants, automatically adjusting as people move in and out of the room.

“Other technologies zoom in on an active speaker, but we decided to use our technology to show the whole collaboration in the room,” says Trivedi. “If you zoom in on a person, they can become self-conscious. You also lose that group dynamic, which can provide context.”

On any given day, 30% to 70% of employees will be working from home. They need to feel like they are truly part of a virtual team. @Logitech via @insightdottech

Videoconferencing Hardware + Virtual-Meeting Software

An Intel® RFP Ready Kit, the Logitech Room Solutions are plug-and-play systems, and customers can choose the model that best fits the size of their meeting spaces and their technology standards. The solution includes an Intel® NUC, a small-footprint PC, running Windows IoT. It ships preloaded with the customer’s choice of Microsoft Teams Rooms or Zoom Rooms software, enabling companies to standardize and easily scale their videoconferencing. The kit also has audio and video tools, including a camera, microphone, and speaker. And it includes a user-friendly touchscreen controller called Logitech Tap (Video 1).

Video 1. Logitech Room Solutions connect distributed teams with a kit that’s easy to deploy and scale, and includes virtual meeting software, such as Teams (as shown in this video) or Zoom. (Source: Logitech)

“Users hate when technology challenges them,” says Trivedi. “If each setting has a different experience, it causes a lot of anxiety and hurts technology adoption.” The Logitech Tap offers a consistent user experience, so employees know what to expect and can quickly get started with their collaboration instead of trying to decipher what technology is in what room and how to make it work. Starting a meeting is done through the same process, whether it’s between two people or a large group in a boardroom.

New Opportunities for Integrators

The new standard of hybrid working brings new business opportunities to systems integrators (SIs), who help customers by deploying technology to deliver more consistent and natural collaboration experiences. SIs can tailor the platform to specific hybrid workplace models and collaboration needs, and help with deployment, creating an optimal end-user experience that follows best technology practices.

“And there’s always opportunities for SIs to offer additional services to keep the environment up and running,” says Trivedi. “These tools will become mission-critical in a hybrid workplace.”

The Logitech Room Solutions also have capabilities beyond meetings. Their ultra-high-definition 4K camera technology can provide a head count inside conference rooms or boardrooms. This capability could help integrators design solutions with capacity parameters, sending alerts to help companies enforce social-distancing policies.

Videoconferencing Beyond the Office

While the system has applications in a wide range of industries, it’s driving real change in education and healthcare. The videoconferencing tool is helping K-12 and higher-education institutions fill the enormous demand for learning in a hybrid classroom environment. And hospitals are using the solution to provide remote care, allowing specialists to check on hospitalized patients remotely at any time. Doctors can also set up convenient telehealth appointments. Video connections allow families to visit with their loved ones in distant facilities or after hours.

“Right now, schools and healthcare institutions are using the technologies to address the current situation, but they’re starting to think beyond the pandemic,” says Trivedi. “If you’re an educational institution, you can expand your scope to reach underserved populations in rural areas who don’t have access to quality education or healthcare.”

Trivedi believes robust videoconferencing will be a catalyst for business change and growth. “Smart video technology goes beyond digital substitution,” he says. “It drives real digital transformation by helping organizations expand the scope of possibilities to reinvent and transform their businesses.”

What’s Next for Signage Systems Integrators?

Posted on by Micah Kaplan

A conversation with Kevin Cosbey @SenecaData

[Podcast player]

The digital signage market has shifted dramatically. Established markets like corporate and campus environments took a big hit during the pandemic, while other markets like grocery stores and quick-service restaurants scrambled to deploy more digital displays.

What does the market look like going forward? And how can systems integrators pivot to new markets quickly and on a budget? We put these questions to Kevin Cosbey, a business development representative with Seneca—a company known for its SI-friendly signage solutions. We explore:

  • Where the hot markets for signage are in 2021
  • How SIs can scale to multiple markets
  • How to select the right signage player and CMS
  • How to future-proof for new workloads like AI at the edge
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Transcript

Kevin Cosbey: So one area we’ve focused a lot of effort and energy on to solve some problems was: How do we make the out-of-box experience around media players to be so seamless and simple?

Kenton Williston: That was Kevin Cosbey, a business development representative with Seneca, and I’m Kenton Williston, the Editor-in-Chief of insight.tech. Every episode on the IoT Chat I talk to industry experts about the technology and business trends that matter for developers, systems integrators, and end users.

Today I am talking to Kevin about the challenges and opportunities for digital signage systems integrators in 2021. It’s no secret that the pandemic completely upended the signage market, but I want to know how SI should react, and how they can set themselves up for long-term success.

Kenton Williston: Kevin, welcome to the show. What should SIs know about Seneca?

Kevin Cosbey: Yeah, thanks, Kenton. Really appreciate the time to be with you and your audience today. Appreciate the opportunity.

My name is Kevin Cosbey. I’m business development at Seneca, which is an Arrow Electronics company. So for about 30-plus years or so we’ve been focused on what I like to consider niche computing. We initially got our start distributing printers and printer supplies and things like that. And I think after a while of that, a light bulb went off, and said, “Hey, there’s probably a computer that’s hooked up to this printer. Let’s get in that business.”

So over the years we transitioned and migrated a little bit, and about a decade or so ago we found ourselves in a position where we identified a gap in the industry: that there needed to be these purpose-built small form factor devices that required a lot of computing performance at the Edge. And we made the decision to start focusing our efforts and energy and resources into producing these little purpose-built media players that were going to be intended for the use of digital signage.

And ever since then it’s kind of been a big focus for us. We’ve also created another division that’s security and surveillance related—and that’s high-performance computing with servers specifically for IP cameras and things like that. So that’s where I sit, and about six or just maybe shy of seven years ago, Arrow Electronics acquired us, so now we’re part of the big Arrow family.

Kenton Williston: What would you say is top of mind for signage systems integrators as we get into 2021?

Kevin Cosbey: Yeah, that’s a lot to unpack. I imagine, if things were different, I’d have a totally different answer to that—if things were just normal—but we find ourselves in a really precarious situation where, right now, I think the two items that are most important for a lot of systems integrators out there are just opportunity and simplicity. Twofold—there are the opportunities that were working 18 months ago that are completely different from the opportunities we’re working today. We find ourselves a little shy in a lot of the areas where people just aren’t anymore. So large corporations, large facilities, large campuses, things like that. We just obviously don’t have the need for digital signage anymore.

However, on the other side of the spectrum we see a massive increase in a lot of the, what we’ve deemed now as essential—so a lot of grocery, a lot of convenience store applications, a lot of quick-service restaurants with drive-through. Even the paradigm shift now with convenience stores, where some of them are even designing drive-through capabilities for convenience.

There’s probably going to be a pretty strong paradigm shift in that curbside pickup. That’s not going to go away, and drive-through technologies—that stuff’s not going to go away. There’s going to be some interesting consumer behaviors that change for good, and that just aren’t going to go away as vaccines and things kind of hit the industry. So that’s going to be interesting. So I think that we’ve got to stay heads-up with understanding the unique challenges that are going to exist in a lot of these vertical spaces, and adapt our technology to solve some of those critical business issues.

And then, on that other side of the spectrum, is that simplicity factor. You can throw technology at a lot of different challenges, but if it’s not designed specifically to meet those unique needs, then unfortunately you’re just throwing technology around to throw technology around. And what we are about on our side of the house is designing very purpose-built, specific devices that also encompass the correct software. So we look at the industry as a whole, and try to identify what are some massive issues that we can solve as it relates to the technology.

So one area we’ve focused a lot of effort and energy on to solve some problems was—how do we make the out-of-box experience around media players to be so seamless and simple that you don’t have to do much thinking—you can have consistent deployments and everything is in one box. So we developed this platform called Maestro. And what that allows us to do is put in all of our software partners, folks like Broadsign, and Navori, Signagelive. And that list goes on, along with analytics folks, and put them all and package them nicely into one application.

So when you start that media player at the Edge and it just asks you, “What do you want the software to be?” And you click Broadsign, and it goes through that process. So I really think it’s those two things: It’s going to be what opportunities are presenting themselves to us today that are unique, that didn’t exist 18 months ago; and what opportunities are going to be kind of opening up as hospitality opens up, as travel opens up, and things like that.

Kenton Williston: Speaking of things to unpack, you’ve given me a lot to unpack there.

So let me start with this question of simplicity. So, you know, it sounds good in concept, but I think there is a balance to be had there. The more you can simplify your designs, the easier it’s going to be to go out and deploy them and do things at scale. But at the same time, the type of environments we’re talking about are really diverse, with a lot of different needs. So how can systems integrators achieve this kind of simplicity without getting stuck in, like, a one-size-fits-all kind of mentality?

Kevin Cosbey: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I hear the word “bundle” frequently in our industry. I’ve been in the space for 15, 16 years, and I’ve heard the word “bundle” thrown around all the time. And unfortunately, as much as I’d love it, bundles don’t work. Just putting some stuff together and saying, “We’ve got it”—it doesn’t solve the unique, complex problems that exist in our industry. And it’s similar to the ‘90s, when the internet was kind of becoming popular, a lot of folks had GeoCities, or whatever you had for building a website. And then as the years go on, you start having these organizations come out that say, “Hey, we’ve got these templates, and you can use a template to design your web environment.”

But at the end of the day, if you’re just designing with a template, or designing with something that already kind of exists, you’re not going to get to what the desired outcome is—and that’s where our focus is. So when we say we’re putting some of these software partners of ours into all of our media players, it’s not an intention of just redefining the word “bundle,” because that’s not what it’s doing. What we are doing is taking a lot of the complexities that exist in our industry, which are—the last count I heard was a few years ago—there’s something around 3,800 software companies in the world that are digital signage software companies.

Now we only really consider 1% of those to be legitimate and to be heavily focused in our digital signage industry. So what we’ve done is we’ve taken a lot of the guesswork out by partnering up with the folks that have been in the industry for a long time—that’s 10, 15, 20-plus years—partnering with folks that are financially healthy, partnering with folks that have engineering and hardware and software engineers that are exclusively focused in digital signage.

So that allows us to work with organizations, and potentially take off about six to nine months of that discovery phase. So that’s what we’re focused on—we’re focused on moving digital signage forward by removing those complexities. Whereas other organizations might just say, “Yeah, we’ve got hardware and you can use it and it’s going to work just fine.” But we want to take it that next step in saying, “We’ve got hardware, and we’ve certified it with very solid, foundationally sound organizations in the CMS world.”

Kenton Williston: So it sort of sounds like the whole fairy tale about the three little bears, right? You’ve got the too-small version—we’ve just got a piece of hardware with no software on top of it. The too-big solution—which is we’re going to pre-bundle everything, and then it may not quite work right for your application. And you’re taking that just-right middle ground of saying, “Hey, you know, we’re going to have verified hardware and software combinations, but we’re not going to limit you to just one combination.” Do I have that right?

Kevin Cosbey: That’s perfect, and I love that analogy. And if I’ve got your permission, I can use that in the future?

Kenton Williston: Absolutely, absolutely. So, speaking of the hardware—are you seeing changing requirements in the hardware, and for that matter, for the software? And, if so, what can systems integrators do to not only get the right hardware out there today, but have sort of future-proof designs that will be adaptable to whatever’s coming next?

Kevin Cosbey: Yeah, I’m glad you used the word “future-proof,” because that is something that I have in my vernacular and use with a lot of prospects and customers. It’s one thing to just display content on a disparate screen somewhere out in the world. It’s another to consider what that display is going to look like 36 months from now, or 60 months from now. And identifying the correct technology mix that’s going to ensure the most, I’ll use the term “bang for your buck” on that technology suite.

So we see a lot of folks that will just get a display, run it with onboard graphics capabilities, and they’ll make pretty good-looking wallpaper that’s digital. The unfortunate reality is, as most organizations start to deploy digital signage and see the effects that digital experiences have with consumers, they start to unpeel those layers and try to identify, “Okay, how do we get more out of this asset that’s sitting on our books? How do we connect it to other environments within our ecosystem—other software environments—so we can get real-time data to deliver unique content experiences?” Or, alternatively, “How do we add some IP camera technology to be a third eye and understand what’s going on in its environment? How do we add sensors to this device so we can understand what’s going on in the environment, and then allow the solution to sort of be ubiquitous around us?”

So when a digital signage solution becomes ubiquitous around us, and it’s grabbing information from its real-world environment and then creating and rendering content in real time, now we’re future-proofing for 5, 10 years down the road. Yeah, it’s one thing to get a 1080p up on a display; it’s another to create a drive-through experience that is so intelligent that it remembered that person cruising through in their car based on a license plate, and it captured that information prior, and then displays, “Hey, we know that you . . . .” Well, I’m not going to say, “We know,” but, “We understand you’ve purchased these things in the past; how can we give you information that you want on this digital menu board?”

So it’s driving more unique experiences, is what we’re after.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, and I think that’s something I’m seeing, definitely, myself—a lot of discussion in this space about analytics: whether it is a sort of drive-through experience like you mentioned, or even things beyond vision sensors—all kinds of sensors, like, “Hey, if it’s raining today, let’s advertise the umbrellas. If it’s sunny, let’s advertise the sunglasses.” Right? So how do you think these new application workloads are impacting the systems requirements?

Kevin Cosbey: It’s a massive impact on the device. So historically we’ve seen everything go from on-premises—like 10-plus years ago the majority of content was on-prem and it was on the device—which required a lot of compute strength and power. Then, as we stepped a little bit further through the chronology of digital signage, we found ourselves in a world of everyone saying, “We’ve got to put everything in the cloud—everything has to be in the cloud. We’re going to render in the cloud. We’re going to cloud, cloud, cloud.” And now we step a little bit further, and we’ve started to realize that the amount of time and bandwidth that is required to go to the cloud and back is sometimes either too much bandwidth, or latency is a concern.

So now we’re in a mixed reality of a nice marriage between cloud computing and then on-prem computing. So we’re starting to see that the camera that’s embedded into the system—or whatever sensor technology that exists out connected to that device—we’re working with software partners that have a requirement to render unique content experiences at the Edge, instead of going up to the cloud. So that’s where we’re starting to see things move which we’re capable of providing, and that’s where we’ve been for more than a decade now.

Kenton Williston: Interesting. So it sounds like it’s a pretty big leap in processing requirements, but also software sophistication. So I’m wondering if you can speak to that—what does the content management system look like today, and how can system integrators set up the right sort of CMS so that they can rapidly respond? Not only to whatever’s happening based on edge processing, but being able to quickly deploy new campaigns whenever their clients ask or whatever else might be affecting it with—maybe there’s some changing government regulations, or whatever. How are all these considerations impacting CMS elements?

Kevin Cosbey: I usually consider there’s about three categories of digital signage. There’s the infotainment, or informational, where it’s a transit location or a patient waiting room—something to that effect, where there’s information that the customer or the person waiting around could gain some knowledge out of. Then there’s the retail-based focus, or kind of the QSR—I kind of package that a little bit together, because they’re really interested in selling a specific product or selling a specific solution. And then we have the digital out-of-home world, which is its own beast.

So in that informational one, a lot of folks are delivering content based on employee communications, based on campus educational communications, based on what we want our student, faculty, staff, what have you—we want them to be updated with information. In that realm it is mostly a broadcast-type ideology. So we’ve got content, we’ve got messaging, and we’ve got to get it out to our folks.

Now, sometimes there could be some emergency systems connected into that. So, yes, there’s an emergency going on—I realize no one’s going to be immediately going, “Oh, let me look immediately at the digital display to understand what I should do.” But if it’s enhancing the existing messaging that already exists, then I think that’s a win. So that’s kind of like a mission-critical-type application. Then, in the retail/QSR casual dining space, that’s a world where the CMSs are exclusively focused on: How do we get relevant data to that device so we can distribute and render brand-new content to drive that unique content experience that I was talking about?

And then, lastly, in that digital out-of-home world—I imagine everyone has that vision of Times Square in their head, right? Where it’s a massive billboard, and it’s a really, really cool content ad experience. But the reality is, most of your digital out-of-home ads are through malls; they’re through airports; they’re through mass transit; they’re through, sometimes, outdoor billboards and things like that. But in that world the CMSs are exclusively focused on: How do we get the right advertisement to the right Edge end point where we’re going to have the highest effect, or highest rate of return, ROI, on the audience that we’re trying to get information to?

So while they’re all getting information to a display, it’s how they’re doing it and why they’re doing it that’s the most important. And a long time ago the CMS world would be—they would say yes to everything. And, again, I apologize to any CMS companies out there, but a lot of times they’d say yes to everything—retail, QSR, digital out-of-home—whatever was flowing their way. Then we started to see a lot of these CMS companies start focusing on their core competency. And I think that’s a big message that I like to scream from the rooftops—work with organizations that focus on the core competency.

So organizations that found that unique niche in education campuses, they’re doing really well. I mean, not today as a result of COVID, but overall, when they focus in a specific area they do really well. When you’ve got companies like Broadsign that focus exclusively on programmatic digital out-of-home, they do really well. So that’s kind of where we are today. We work with the right CMS partners, because they’re driving the right outcomes for our customers.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, so that leads me kind of back around to something we talked about earlier in our conversation, which is how Seneca is bringing these different hardware and software solutions together. It sounds like a big part of what you’re doing is working with your different partners in the CMS space to get the right fits for your hardware boxes, and that’s great. And I’m wondering how the relationships are evolving—not only between Seneca and the CMS folks and whoever else you might work with, but also the relationship between the systems integrator and a technology provider like Seneca. And, in particular, if there are new and different ways that systems integrators could think about leveraging this changing ecosystem to better take advantage of their relationship with companies like Seneca.

Kevin Cosbey: Yeah, great question. And this is where my mind starts going nuts, because systems integrators can do so many revenue generating activities as it relates to signage. The number-one area that we just don’t do, and our CMS partners don’t do, and a lot of folks in the industry don’t do, is that day-two support content. Not content creation, but content execution—making sure the health of a network for digital signage is up and running is so absolutely important to hit any type of critical mass.

And over the years I’ve kind of noticed that as networks get to the thousands-of area—somewhere around like 2 to 5,000—there becomes this choke point, and it slows down the scalability. And I believe that’s because the resources within that organization have basically reached their maximum output. And as a result, the network growth capabilities become stagnant, and they can’t quite focus on: How do we get out of our own way to get this network to grow beyond 5,000 units?

And we’ve got some partners that have been incredibly successful as systems integrators—managing, monitoring, maintaining these networks, and ensuring content execution is done correctly. Those organizations are growing massively, because they’re adding significant value-adds to date to support. We’re only great with making a media player, putting the right software on it, and making sure you can install it correctly. After that, it’s out in the wild. And we’ve got to make sure that we’re not getting to a choke point of a network, and we can get into exponential growth—not just, “All right, we’re going to do a few hundred here and 20 here and 10 there.” That’s what we’re focused on—removing a lot of those barriers that allow a choke point to happen.

Kenton Williston: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So we’ve covered so much ground here, but I bet you have ideas that I haven’t been clever enough to ask you. So is there anything else you’d like to share? Any key takeaways you’d like to leave with our audience?

Kevin Cosbey: I think ultimately that the digital signage world is such a unique space. And for those that participate in it and are partnered in it, they know full well exactly what I mean by: It’s more complex than it needs to be. But the reality is, it’s such a unique architecture that hasn’t really existed prior, that it’s really important to pick the right partners that are going to be here for a long time. And when you don’t—unfortunately that’s when we start to see digital signage displays out there in the wild that have a Windows XP error message on the front, or we start seeing unique challenges out in the space because certain things weren’t considered or they chose partners unwisely.

And I think the nice thing that we’ve done in this space is we focus on making the technology work. Other organizations, they might just say, “Yeah, we’ve got a media player, and it kind of works for it, and we’ve got some partnerships here and there.” But when I say we’re exclusively focused on digital signage, that’s what we live, eat, breathe every single day. And we stay in our lane very narrowly in the hardware space and make it easy. So I’d say: Choose your partners wisely, the folks that are going to be around for a long time, and they’ll take good care of you.

Kenton Williston: Well, that certainly makes sense to me. And with that, Kevin, I just want to say thank you so much for joining us.

Kevin Cosbey: My pleasure. Thank you, Kenton; we appreciate the opportunity.

Kenton Williston: Absolutely.

And thanks to our listeners for joining us. If you enjoyed listening, please support us by subscribing and rating us on your favorite podcast app.

This has been the IoT Chat podcast. We’ll be back next time with more ideas from industry leaders at the forefront of IoT design.