https://www.iotworldtoday.com/wp-content/themes/ioti_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
Iot World Today
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • newsletter
  • IIoT
  • Cities
  • Energy
  • Homes/Buildings
  • Transportation/Logistics
  • Connected Health Care
  • Retail
  • AI
  • Architecture
  • Engineering/Development
  • Security
ioti.com

Embedded Computing


General Electric

Illustration of GE Transportation digital twin

Report: Digital Twin Technology Reduces Need for Device Developers

A report from Forrester explains why digital twin technology should be a cornerstone tool for development teams and how it minimizes reliance on highly specialized development skill sets.
  • Written by Courtney Bjorlin
  • 21st June 2017

IoT platforms that support digital twin technology will be crucial for application developers to deliver IoT projects, and development teams at companies undertaking IoT initiatives should make them a centerpiece of their IoT strategies, according to a newly updated report from Forrester.

Digital twin technology removes two roadblocks for developers working on IoT projects–speed and complexity. The technology insulates back-end developers from complexity in edge computing development, which requires knowledge of embedded programming and specialized communication protocols. And similar to mobile application development, IoT platforms that support digital twins provide the “core plumbing” to connect, secure and manage devices and quickly stand up connected products. Using an IoT platform that supports digital twin technology reduces the need for highly specialized device developers.

“The digital twin creates a nice abstraction mechanism for these developers,” Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Jeffrey Hammond, who himself has two decades of development experience, said in an interview. “It allows each developer to do the work they want to do without having to worry about the entire system.”

Connected-product development is difficult because it requires the convergence of two different development spheres. Developers working on front-end systems—devices at the network’s edge—have expertise in embedded hardware and specialized communication protocols, and have traditionally been focused on operational efficiency. Back-end developers, on the other hand, focus on integration and analysis of data to render it in a consumable format that provides insight to the business.

The digital twin is an instantiation of a real, physical object in an abstracted, digital form that acts as a proxy for all communication to an actual device, according to the report, “The Digital Twin Accelerates IoT Development.” IoT platforms with frameworks that include digital twin technology provide several benefits. These include detection of intermittent device connectivity, the ability to manage over-the-air device updates and reboots, built-in support for IoT protocols that automatically generate APIs and support for emerging de facto standards, acting as an anchor for thing-specific algorithms for asset optimization and integration, and the ability to abstract automation topologies to speed the response of analysis.

Researchers highlight capabilities in seven platforms that support variations of a digital twin concept: AWS IoT, C3 IoT, IBM Watson IoT, GE Predix, Microsoft’s Azure Service Fabric, PTC’s ThingWorx, and SAP IoT Application Enablement.

Hammond sees adoption of these platforms falling into two categories. For industrial IoT, customers are looking to their “incumbents,” like SAP, GE, and Microsoft. For connected devices, companies like C3 IoT and Amazon are leading the way.

As such, interoperability among these platforms will be extremely important, as the asset-intensive industries won’t buy everything from one vendor, Hammond said.

Even with the technology to empower it, bringing the two groups of developers together will be a challenge. As such, Hammond is seeing digital specialists and design agencies that spearheaded mobile application development efforts taking similar roles in IoT development.

“In organizations that do it well, most of the time it’s [led by] the digital organization, who might be reporting into the marketing organization or operations,” he said. “And as business cases get more complex, the digital group and operations organization will need to work together.”

Tags: Article Embedded Computing Technologies News

Related


  • Training and Development on the Mechanism of Metal Gears. in the design of information related to business
    Turning to Rust Development For IoT Performance
    If you haven’t heard of it, Rust is an up-and-coming programming language that provides secure application performance for device-run code.
  • Training and Development on the Mechanism of Metal Gears. in the design of information related to business
    How to Run Docker on IoT Devices
    Here’s how to run Docker on IoT devices, which enables you to bring container-based app development to the edge.
  • Jetting to the Stars Using Containers for Development
    The Department of Defense develops for space travel, bombers and jets. It turned to containers for development to build and battle-test its mission-critical systems.
  • ‘Edge NLP’ Is About Doing More With Less
    Digital assistants, enabled by natural language processing can execute a range of functions. But 'edge NLP,' has little use when embedded in devices with limited resources and connectivity.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your IoT World Today account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Content

  • IoT in Utilities Market Brings Resilience in Wake of COVID-19 Pressure
  • Winners of the 2020 IoT World Awards Announced
  • State of Manufacturing Technology Report
  • Modernizing the Manufacturing Industry with MQTT

News

View all

Private LTE Market Projected to Grow to $13 Billion

12th January 2021

IoT World Announces 2021 IoT World Advisory Board

9th December 2020

White Papers

View all

The eSIM Cookbook – Towards the Next Generation of Connected Devices

22nd February 2021

eSIM Delivers Greater Freedom for OEMs – by Beecham Research and Truphone

22nd February 2021

Special Reports

View all

Cybersecurity Protection Increasingly Depends on Machine Learning

28th October 2020

Webinars

View all

Weber’s Journey: How a Top Grill Maker Serves Up Connected Cooking

25th February 2021

From Insights to Action: Best Practices for Implementing Connected Device Security

15th December 2020

Galleries

View all

Top IoT Trends to Watch in 2020

26th January 2020

Five of the Most Promising Digital Health Technologies

14th January 2020

Industry Perspectives

View all

IoT Spending Holds Firm — Tempered by Dose of ‘IoT Pragmatism’

1st December 2020

The Great IoT Connectivity Lockdown

11th May 2020

Events

View all

IoT at the Edge

17th March 2021

Embedded IoT World 2021

28th April 2021 - 29th April 2021

IoT World 2021

2nd November 2021 - 4th November 2021

Twitter

IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

At Microsoft Ignite: How IoT and Robotics Are Driving Industry 4.0 dlvr.it/Rttgwj

3rd March 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

🎙️ Introducing #EIOTWORLD speaker, Obinna Ilochonwu, Industrial IoT Architect at Schlumberger. 📅 Join his session… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

2nd March 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

#Smartbuilding technology lays the foundation for #energyefficiency efforts but also new COVID-19 goals, such as… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

2nd March 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

IoT Remote Monitoring Helps Enterprises Traverse COVID-19 and Beyond dlvr.it/RtZ3K5 https://t.co/owJXYf1gkO

26th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Securing the Industrial Internet of Things dlvr.it/RtYfYk https://t.co/khUn79dvQD

26th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

📢 Announcing #EIOTWORLD sponsor, @BluetoothSIG — the global standard for simple, secure wireless connections. ➕ Le… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

How IoT Devices Can Enhance the Connected Customer Experience dlvr.it/RtPcvS

24th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

🤝 Meet #EIOTWORLD speaker Ingo Feldner, Project Lead for Virtual #Hardware Platforms at @RobertBoschGmbH 📅 Join hi… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

24th February 2021

Newsletter

Sign up for IoT World Today newsletters: vertical industry coverage on Tuesdays and horizontal tech coverage on Thursdays.

Special Reports

Our Special Reports take an in-depth look at key topics within the IoT space. Download our latest reports.

Business Resources

Find the latest white papers and other resources from selected vendors.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IoT World Series
  • Channel Futures
  • RISC-V
  • Dark Reading
  • ITPro Today
  • Web Hosting Talk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Login/Register

FOLLOW IoT World Today ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X