Numerous tech giants are currently withdrawing their IoT products from the market or repositioning them. What remains, however, is the uncertainty among affected users who need to migrate to a new IoT platform. But don’t worry, a transition can be conducted swiftly even for complete systems, eliminating business risks from the outset. Instead, companies can look forward to increased competitiveness, reduced operating costs, and more satisfied end customers.
It’s a situation that is becoming more and more common: One of our clients, an international heating & ventilation manufacturer, was affected by the discontinuation of SAP Leonardo. They had to act quickly and migrate to a new IoT platform as business-critical features were no longer available. The choice ultimately fell on a cloud solution from Microsoft Azure. While the two stacks of Leonardo and Azure are almost identical, it was through a data analysis that our client was able to determine which functions needed to be carried over and which ones had to be newly and specifically implemented. Azure provided the necessary flexibility for implementing all the relevant functionalities, such as multiple hierarchy levels. This is just one example of how a migration can be carried out smoothly and seamlessly with the right partner. Of course, the reasons for an IoT platform switch can vary greatly.
On the one hand, there are the announcements of well-known IoT products being discontinued by tech giants. On the other hand, there are numerous companies that were already dissatisfied with their existing IoT solutions. From our conversations, we know that there are several pain points that consistently trouble decision-makers: primarily high operating costs for IoT platforms, instability, performance deficiencies, unsatisfactory development speed, and insufficient flexibility for new features. Many companies suffer from the dependency on their IoT platform provider (vendor lock-in), which hampers the customization and expansion of the chosen IoT solution.
Nevertheless, many companies remain hesitant to migrate their IoT platform. They wonder which IoT platform strategy will provide the right foundation for the future. Yet, continuing with “business as usual” poses the risk of further performance issues, dissatisfied customers, and, in the worst case, a decline in competitiveness. All these factors could ultimately jeopardize the entire IoT business model. Many companies are aware that a change is necessary. However, most decision-makers are risk-averse as they fear that migration could not only be costly but also take an unpredictable amount of time or introduce new problems and limitations that need to be carefully considered. Sound familiar?
At this point, we can provide some reassurance: Migration projects are now part of the IoT business. Even large fleets in excess of 10,000 devices can be reliably “migrated” without end customers even noticing the switch in live operation. We advocate for a shift to IoT solutions built on generic cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure or AWS, benefiting from their highly flexible, secure, and scalable cloud and data services. Microsoft Azure, in particular, is perfectly suited for processing large volumes of data. Here’s a practical example: A customer’s devices transmit 80,000 data points per second. With Azure, these can be effortlessly stored and managed – at a fraction of the cost compared to the previous provider, who struggled to handle just half the data volume.
Ultimately, the domain knowledge of the chosen IoT specialist is crucial for developing a cloud-based solution. They should be able to navigate the universe of services offered by hyperscale cloud providers and select the relevant services that align with the specific use case. Functions need to be tailored with a focus on product-market fit.
Regardless of your strategic decision for a new IoT or cloud platform, you don’t have to fear the migration process as long as you have the right partner by your side. At Device Insight, for example, we follow a proven setup that guides you through five steps to ensure a successful migration:
After a multi-stage consulting process within our 5-by-5 IoT Solutions Reviews, we systematically map the requirements and necessary cloud services for our clients. We create a concept for the platform migration from the old to the new system and provide an assessment regarding the expected costs and potential risks. Subsequently, we conduct an evaluation to determine whether a cloud architecture on Microsoft Azure or AWS is better suited. In the final step, our IoT experts migrate the IoT platform to the new cloud solution, which can be accomplished even for more than 10,000 devices within a timeframe of six to twelve months.
Try it out – and enjoy the benefits of switching platforms for your business case. With a flexible IoT framework like the one offered by Device Insight, you no longer have to worry about vendor lock-in and have the freedom to implement your decisions.
Feel free to take a look at our Expert Paper for an overview of successful migration projects.
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