The 6 Benefits of Using an IoT Device Management Platform According to Robustel

The current mass adoption of IoT is starting to reach the potential that experts predicted back in the early 2000s. Those who were early adopters now face a disparate mix of devices from different vendors, using different applications, and spread across multiple regions. The risk of this reality is rising costs for manual device management, tuning, and support. These disadvantages are quickly outweighing the initial benefits of IoT adoption.

Fortunately, these risks can be mitigated by using an IoT Device Management Platform. These can come in various forms: single-vendor, open-source, device-agnostic ERP platforms, and more.

Nowadays, every IoT vendor offers IoT Device Management as part of their overall offering. Robustel is no different with its Robustel Cloud Manager Service (RCMS).

This article provides insights for anyone working on their IoT strategy on making an IoT Device Management Platform the cornerstone of their implementation. Whether you choose Robustel or another vendor for your overall implementation, these benefits shouldn't be overlooked, or you'll find the IoT benefits gradually diminishing.

Benefit 1 – Fast implementation
One of the first challenges most companies face when deploying remote devices is the cost of having trained personnel in the field to program and configure them. These costs then increase exponentially when you consider deployments in other countries and in areas with strict regulations and security policies.
By using a device management platform, you can ship a piece of hardware anywhere in the world and—as long as the internet can reach it—a trained technician can remotely manage the configuration of that device.
Some vendors, such as Robustel, go a step further by offering a zero-touch configuration method, such as the Device Templates feature in RCMS. This allows customers to pre-configure hardware with their chosen settings, firmware, and applications, and then automatically download that profile whenever the device connects to the internet, meaning it can be installed by anyone without any technical knowledge (other than powering the device).

Benefit 2 – Access Control
While the world of cybersecurity is becoming increasingly complex, there are still a dizzying array of risks and security vulnerabilities that can be avoided by ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to a device. Remote access allows a developer to block or restrict all physical access points such as USB, Ethernet, or serial ports until absolutely necessary, and manage all device functionality virtually through the platform.
By creating authorized users on your device management platform, you can easily grant or restrict access to key device functions and data from a central point. Taking things a step further, most platforms now allow you to export activity logs, so that in the event of a security breach, the source can be immediately located and permanently removed or blocked.

Benefit 3 – Inventory Management
A common problem in the early days of M2M and IoT deployments was that a lot of device data was recorded in spreadsheets or across multiple locations. As employees changed and documents shifted, devices were often lost or forgotten. Using a Device Management Platform provides an additional layer of inventory management, allowing all devices used in the field to be registered, along with their firmware, installed applications, and configuration, making them easy to locate.

Some platforms, such as Robustel's RCMS, also include a geolocation feature, allowing you to locate your IoT devices on a map via GPS or cell tower triangulation.

Benefit 4 – Device Security
Securing physical access to your devices is crucial—a 2017 study from the University of Maryland found that a hacker attacks an internet-connected device every 39 seconds! This means the potential for exploiting security flaws in operating systems and edge applications has increased exponentially.
Just like mobile devices, computers and tablets that require software and firmware updates for security also need to be updated periodically to ensure bugs can be successfully fixed. Traditionally, this was done by flashing firmware using a connected computer via USB or Ethernet – now it's possible to deliver an application or firmware update over-the-air (OTA).
Robustel's RCMS not only allows you to remotely update firmware, applications, and configuration files on a per-device basis, it can also be performed on a group or batch of devices, making securing a deployment of several thousand devices across multiple locations as simple as pushing a button!

Benefit 5 – Troubleshooting and Support
As your device collection grows, the need to monitor the performance of your devices changes from an occasional task to something that needs to be monitored constantly.
As your devices expand into the thousands, having a clear dashboard and alert system becomes critical to running an effective support center.
A good Device Management Platform shows you the status of your devices in real time and offers a wide range of tools and reporting features to help you diagnose problems as quickly as possible. With the increasing complexity of IoT implementations, the number of "links in the chain" that can be broken is growing. When a device stops working, is it network-related, environmental, hardware-related, or software-related? By obtaining clear reports and alerts from your platform, you can diagnose these issues without needing a technician on-site.

Robustel's RCMS offers a comprehensive suite of reports and alerts that can be configured at an individual or group level, so your support staff immediately know when a device or group of devices fails and have access to the appropriate reports to diagnose the fault with ease.

Benefit 6 – Simplified integration
While an IoT Device Management Platform is incredibly useful in itself, it's usually never the only piece of your IoT implementation puzzle. Device data often needs to be sent to multiple locations and parsed by various other software. When investing in device management software, ensure there's a degree of interoperability between the devices you deploy in the field and the platform(s) you'll be using.

As standard practice, most platforms offer an Open API for quickly integrating other software platforms. Some platforms, such as Robustel's RCMS, also offer specific integrations with approved third-party environments, such as Microsoft IoT Hub, allowing the platform to act as a bridge between machine and sensor data and third-party software.

Conclusion
As your IoT deployment grows and environments and applications become more complex, it's crucial to ensure you have an IoT Device Management Platform. It's important to partner with a vendor that gives you the freedom to implement a platform as soon as you start, without incurring substantial costs for an implementation that might not yield a return on your investment for a year or more.
That's why Robustel's RCMS is available completely free of charge for monitoring and reporting purposes to all customers with any number of devices, so you can establish good reporting and management habits from day one. If you already use Robustel devices, you can create a free RCMS account by click here.

For more information call or email Delmation