Manage Your Cellular Network To Get The Best From The IoT

Is your IoT connectivity out of control and hard to handle? To misquote Marilyn Monroe though, you do deserve it at its best.

The infinite complexity and immense diversity of applications for the IoT has meant that it has quickly outgrown the standard provision of most traditional operators. As a result, many enterprises are becoming increasingly frustrated with the failure of networks to cope with the scale and scope of business needs, but overcoming this is beyond the means of many.

Part of the problem is the array of technologies and knowledge needed to mesh together the elements of an IoT system into one. The sensors, the routers, the gateways, the platforms, the analytics, the software, the connectivity; never mind the data, the compliance and the security – it’s a dizzying world of gizmos and geekdom which the average enterprise is stretched to encompass.

Even for the intrepid, limited cross-platform integration and the lack of compatibility between different networks and even departments within the enterprise itself makes it difficult for companies to build custom solutions and manage and scale their IoT deployments.

To further complicate matters, available public cellular networks were not conceived for enterprise IoT applications – instead they were born to serve consumer needs, where the high Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) from consumer applications skewed their evolution. An enterprise needs the flexibility to reconfigure the network to manage changing business needs, pricing, coverage, security. Features that currently are not there.

Connectivity is a key requirement, but also, arguably, the element over which companies have the least control. Cellular IoT connectivity has traditionally been provided by telcos who own the network infrastructure. Initial cellular networks (2G, 3G) did not lend themselves to autonomous control, but the advent of 4G with its IP-based network architecture has made it possible for enterprises to gain control of their IoT connectivity, as external networks become more similar to enterprise IT networks.

Timely advances in technology mean that once complex tasks can be managed from a centralized control center and additionally, traditional inflexible SIM cards are now smart, malleable and revitalizable. The advent of the eSIM, availability of unlicensed spectrum for enterprise use, coupled with the shift towards increasingly administrable networks have made it possible for enterprises to gain control of their IoT connectivity, from the SIM card right up to a private cellular network.

So how can enterprises get the best from the IoT? A new breed of connectivity provider is emerging to fill this niche: the Enterprise Network Operator (ENO), conceived with the aim of putting businesses in the driving seat and equipping them to own and control their IoT environments. This new class of Connectivity Service Provider (CSP) is poised to give enterprises a manageable solution.

The steps to owning your enterprise IoT network

In the webinar, Own the IoT: The Enterprise Guide to Managed Cellular Networks, hosted by IoT For All’s Ken Briodagh, Sam Colley, CEO of Pod Group, together with Félix Ontañón, Pod’s Director of Research and Development, explore and explain just how a business can assume the management of its IoT infrastructure and illustrate the benefits of doing so.