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.

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.