Michele Pelino at Forrester Research recently wrote a blog article on the rise of M2M opportunities, entitled "Vendors: Prepare For The Rise Of Machine To Machine (M2M) Opportunities". Roughly eight years ago, Forrester introduced the concept of the X Internet, made up of Smart sensors, Smart objects connected to Smart services. They had it right, but it just took a while!

Back in 2001, the economics were not right. Wireless data communication was very expensive. And the technology was in its infancy -- we had just introduced the 1.0 version of our product.

Now, with the emergence of platforms for building M2M applications, such as the Axeda SmartLink Platform, Forrester's vision eight years ago is now becoming a reality.

In May 2009, we announced that Axeda received VeriSign Security Certification for the third consecutive year. This certification is a result of a comprehensive assessment covering our entire product portfolio and internal processes. 

I'll resist the temptation to elaborate on how proud I am of Axeda's R&D team and instead talk about why this is important to our customers and their customers. 

First, let's briefly review the Axeda solution architecture for Smart Services.  Our customers that manufacture or manage wired assets install an Axeda Agent on or near their assets, which are deployed on their customers' corporate networks. The agent works with the Axeda Enterprise server to provide our customers with two-way, Firewall-Friendly monitoring, communications, and control of asset data and events in real time. With the transmission of data from a customer location to the manufacturer site or into our hosting center, end-to-end security is a must-have requirement! 

Since the company's inception, we have engineered security into our products because we recognized that without rock-solid security, our customers and their customers would not accept Smart Services. The initial VeriSign Certification - the first remote service application to receive this distinction back in 2006 - validated our efforts and gave manufactures third-party validation that Axeda technology was secure and that their customers would willingly accept Smart Services on their networks.

Hundreds of thousands of deployments later and our third VeriSign Security re-certification proves that our solution meets our customers' (e.g., Diebold, EMC, CareFusion, and Comverse) and their end-customers' (e.g., banks, governments, airports, and hospitals) stringent security requirements.

As reflected by this re-certification and our continuous engineering efforts, Axeda focuses on delivering end-to-end secure solutions, enabling our customers to focus on delivering high-value service and support to their customers.

Harbor Research recently wrote an article (PDF) about the need and progress toward a unified pervasive platform for real-time device and human interaction via the Internet. They cite a number of requirements needed for such a platform:

1. Communications agnostic
2. Open and interoperable
3. Scalable
4. Hosted in the cloud
   

The Axeda SmartLink Platform meets these requirements today. The article also mentions the need for plug-and-play integration with devices. We are working on that with our hardware partners, and have the Axeda Wireless Protocol available to simplify device connectivity.

Connecting all the intelligent devices in the the world still remains a challenge, but we are getting there one step at a time.

With our recent launch of the Axeda SmartLink Platform, we have broadened our focus beyond just remote services. When people think of remote service, they usually think of break-fix type services provided by manufacturers to their customers. But once an asset becomes connected, a whole new world of possibilities is opened up beyond basic service. We are calling these new connected asset solutions Smart Services, Smart Products, and Smart Operations - or collectively, Smart Solutions.

Given the shift, it made sense to rename the blog to the Smart Solutions Blog. Expect more postings on the many ways you can benefit from connected assets that you sell, service or own.

Design patterns are reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems. When an engineer or designer is solving a design problem, many small decisions must be made. A design pattern is a collection of these small decisions, orchestrated into a whole solution. Patterns originated as an architectural concept by architect Christopher Alexander as a way to organize key principles and best practices for the design of living spaces. These design patterns were given names, such as "A Place to Wait", which addresses the architectural design of bus stops, surgery waiting rooms, and bank queues. A pattern is abstract enough to apply to many problems which share a common shape, yet concrete enough to be actionable.

In the course of developing this idea for architectural design, Alexander hit upon a powerful and beautiful concept for all engineering and design disciplines, and this meme has taken hold most notably in the area of software engineering.

When Axeda approaches the "design problem" of helping a customer apply our platform to their business objectives, our professional services and consulting teams look for what I call Solution Patterns. In this context, a solution pattern is a way to describe a collection of those many small design decisions that build towards a solution to a customer's smart service or asset management problem. Some examples of Solution Patterns using Axeda products include:

• Early Warning System - monitor key indicators for equipment failure, based on previously determined heuristics, and produce an alarm condition to warn of impending system failure
• Flight Recorder - gather detailed telemetry data from equipment but do not report unless there is an alarm condition, or if requested
• Push for Help- allow an end-customer to request service from the equipment itself, producing alerts to remote service technicians
• Remote Control - remotely control equipment, interactively
• Self Heal - automatically take corrective measures to common problem situations
• Software Update - publish updated software for your systems

These are just a few, but illustrate the idea and power of this concept on a couple of levels. These patterns provide a launching pad for thinking about what shape a service initiative will take, how best to provide value to end customers, and get the creative juices flowing. When it comes time to implement, aligning with these established patterns can lend speed to the implementation, reduce trial-and-error, and organizes both Axeda and our customer's teams.

This line of thinking also gets everyone in the right frame of mind - solving problems. All too often, IT projects focus on tools, and consequently the solution takes shape around those tools and what they do, while the original problem is partially forgotten, and therefore only partially addressed. In software design, this is what is called an anti-pattern - a recurring pattern of behavior that is ineffective. The methodology of looking for solution patterns inverts this anti-pattern by elevating the problem as the locus of attention, using tools as a means to an end.

For many of our customers, just one pattern can completely satisfy their needs. For others, a synthesis of these patterns come together for a comprehensive program. I like to think of the Axeda product family as being a set of tools that can realize solution patterns. This perspective can be used to understand our product road-map. Our Axeda SmartLink Platform packs a powerful set of new tools, but the goal is not to create new tools - the goal is to facilitate new and powerful solution patterns that help our customers solve their problems in elegant and effective ways.

In the coming weeks, I'll be detailing specific solution patterns, with real-world examples from our customers, and also describing some of the new solution patterns that will be realized by our product road-map.

 

I'm at the M2M Connected World show this week, which is focused on wireless solutions. This year the user presentations have been very impressive, showing how the market is maturing. One of the presentations I sat in on was from AGCO, an $8B manufacturer of agricultural equipment. They did an excellent analysis of all the constituents that will benefit from making their products "Smart".  Here are some examples:

• Customers can track which fields have been treated, schedules for service based on usage, and reports on equipment productivity.
• Dealers are able to provide proactive service, and condition based maintenance, with current location information so they know exactly where the equipment is when service is require.
• AGCO engineers can do remote diagnostics to troubleshoot problems and understand usage patterns to improve product reliability.
• AGCO sales gets information on demo unit usage to help dealers sell the product more effectively.
• AGCO finance uses geofences to be notified when equipment leaves the area where it was leased, indicating a possible theft.
  

Wireless connectivity opens up new categories of products to Smart Services - who would have thought a farm tractor would become a Smart Product?