Developers from all around the globe gathered today in Minneapolis to kick off a two-day Boot Camp training session on Exosite’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform technologies.

For businesses seeking to enter the Internet of Things (IoT) space, creating an effective and appropriate IoT security strategy is one of the most important steps to complete. As IoT devices become more accessible and share more sensitive information, the need to securely capture, send, and store data will become increasingly important.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to grow and include more mainstream applications, the success of the industry and adoption of connected products will rely heavily on the perceived security of such systems. As Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Edith Ramirez noted in a press release regarding IoT, "The only way for the Internet of Things to reach its full potential for innovation is with the trust of American consumers."

A major challenge for designing and developing connected product solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) is the number and variety of complex technologies that must be integrated, along with the specific set of skills required to integrate all of the components. Just looking at the software skills alone requires a range of IT, web technologies, and embedded development that are rarely found internally at a company, let alone a single developer. Considering this, companies often seek ways to outsource the development of specific components of the system (e.g., sensors, devices, gateways, networks severs, user interfaces, business system integration) to external design firms and contractors, and search for off-the-shelf components that work with little customization.

Each year, major tech players in the mobile technology space gather in Barcelona, Spain, for Mobile World Congress (MWC). MWC is the world’s largest annual gathering for mobile and related industry C-level executives to showcase the latest cutting-edge technology and products that will define the future of mobile. And, as Exosite continues to rapidly expand our global technology footprint in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, by nature, we will be there too.

In Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, data is everything. It's the thing we collect, process, and analyze in order to identify and influence users, behaviors, and environments. And, when it comes to security in IoT solutions, data is the thing we seek to protect, not only to ensure privacy and safety, but also to ensure user confidence.

In 2013, the industry began to understand that in order to reach the total addressable market (TAM), vertical-specific industry IoT solutions needed to be developed. One solution that is perhaps one of the best examples of success in the M2M / IoT space is fleet tracking. Fleet tracking is the pattern by which other industries are beginning to package vertical-specific industry solutions (e.g., generator monitoring), while remaining flexible enough to meet the needs of almost any company that manufactures or monitors generators.

In recent years, we've been inundated by media coverage of hacking incidents that are carried out around the globe. On a daily basis, credit card data is stolen, identities are forged, services are overloaded, and private information is leaked. According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on the global state of information security, the rate of information security incidents has grown 48% in 2014 to 42.8 million, which is the equivalent of 117,339 attacks per day.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) industry began taking shape, organizations realized that there was an opportunity to take a more generalized approach to IoT. Instead of reinventing the wheel each time a protocol, platform, or device needed to be created, products and services were developed that could be leveraged across the entire long tail (see our Five Phases of IoT white paper that explains the long tail) of niche connected products.

Although it has been known under different names over many years, the Internet of Things (IoT) is suddenly the thing. It's possible to connect, manage, and monitor almost anything via the Internet, and this phenomenon is taking place everywhere. From the factory floor to the hospital operating room to our very own living rooms, connected products and gadgets are becoming increasingly pervasive.

Prior to 2012, the Internet of Things (IoT) industry began to see the potential of Machine to Machine (M2M) communications as it relates not only to traditional “machine” communications, but also to the efficiencies gained in people’s lives by connecting everyday products to the Internet. During the infancy stages of IoT growth, there were few standardizations and off-the-shelf components to leverage, so developers were forced to reinvent the wheel each time a new product was created. From custom network protocols to hardware and web server applications, everything needed to be created from scratch.

Over twenty IoT developers from a variety of industries attended Exosite's inaugural Boot Camp session in October 2014 and provided positive feedback about their experience. Based on this success, Exosite is now offering tickets for its Spring 2015 Boot Camp session on March 24th and 25th in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Devices all around us are being connected to the Internet - automobiles, fitness trackers, devices on our pets, and devices in our homes are all becoming Internet-enabled. There is no question that companies who are manufacturing products are heavily investing in the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Problem

For its entire existence, the Internet has always had the notion of Clients and Servers. Clients make a request for a resource on a server and the server responds to the client. This works great for traditional browsing of websites because the servers have all the information that the clients want and the clients know when the user wants it.

On December 10th, several members of the Exosite team visited the Feed My Starving Children facility in Chanhassen, Minnesota, to pack meals for hungry children around the world.