Gallery: 10 Questions to Ask When Selecting an IIoT Platform

In prominent platform markets in the past, cloud computing and connectivity serve as the foundation for co-creation. The platform helps solve a central problem while developers build on the platform to meet custom market demands. Smartphone ecosystems, for instance, are an example of this, where Google’s Android ecosystem and Apple’s App Store both inspired a symbiosis of internationally-based developers, consumers and entrepreneurs. In 2018, the App Store generated $22.6 billion in international app revenue while the Android-focused Google Play store generated $11.8 billion. Companies ranging from Amazon to Google to Facebook to Salesforce have all created platforms that support larger ecosystems. 

While the IoT platform market has yet to replicate the success of those prominent examples, executives who are mulling using an IoT platform or multiple platforms should strive to select a platform that not just simplifies commodity-based “plumbing” tasks, but can support an ecosystem of innovation that helps your firm make tangible improvements in how it manages industrial assets and operations. Here, we propose a series of questions designed to do just that.