Top 7 European IoT Platforms to Consider in 2021

According to McKinsey, by 2025, the annual economic impact of IoT could reach $11 trillion. As the IoT technologies boom across industries and get more reliable, more companies are looking to adopt IoT to bring efficiency to their organizations.

The European market for IoT solutions is flourishing, with the Nordics catching up closely. Countries such as Switzerland, the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy lead the IoT adoption. Manufacturing companies, for instance, maximize IoT solutions for predictive analytics and maintenance to ensure a super-efficient manufacturing process.

But companies that strive to modernize their businesses by outsourcing their IoT implementation often struggle to find a reliable IoT platform. So, which are the best IoT platforms in Europe? Let us find out.

1. AKENZA

The highly volatile technological environment needs solutions that enable an agile approach to innovations. Akenza makes IoT accessible by reducing the effort and complexity that companies have when creating IoT solutions. 

Certain features can enable businesses to benefit from the start, such as -

• 4D Agnostic Architecture and self-service functionalities allow businesses to start using the platform right away and remain resilient to change in the future. The agnostic architecture makes sure that companies can be flexible and exchange solution components anytime. 
• Cloud Agnostic allows you to select a deployment model that fits your business requirement, whether in a public or a private cloud.
• Device Agnostic enables you to choose between adding pre-integrated devices from the akenza library or adding your device with minimal coding.
• Connectivity Agnostic makes akenza a go-to option for the best technologies at hand, such as LoRaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoT, or LTE Cat M1.
• Application Agnostic offers a powerful API and comprehensive documentation to support the creation of IoT solutions.
• Built-in Data Visualizations for businesses provide insights into device data and behavior.
• Open-source device type library with many pre-integrated devices. The device type library can be seen as a data parsing tool to extract and structure the data from any IoT device.
• No-code connectors to set up the data processing pipeline. 
• No-code rule engine to trigger actions and alerts based on your IoT data and business logic.

If, as a business, you are juggling with carrier platforms of different network providers, then look no further. Akenza offers the flexibility of choosing different connectivity technologies and network operators to scale IoT projects in various markets.

This IoT platform offers -

• Connectivity-as-a-service prevents the hassle of several connectivity accounts and contracts. 
• Bidirectional LPWAN integrations allow synchronization of LPWAN accounts and configuration of connectivity parameters. Integrations into backbone systems such as Ericsson DCP enables the management of devices and SIM cards for NB-IoT cases. 
• White Labeling option enables businesses to brand their IoT offering and resell it with their brand name.
• Full-proof security processes ensure protection for public cloud and private cloud.
• User Management is ensured with role-based access control and SSO integrations.
  
  

2. TAGOIO

TagoIO offers an end-to-end IoT cloud platform that transforms business value from connected products and user interactions. It provides tools to manage devices, store data, run analytics, and integrate services, combining with an easy-to-use application and user management system.

With TagoIO, you can - 

• Connect any device with HTTPS, MQTT, through WiFi, Sigfox, LoRaWAN, NBIoT, BLE, LTE, satellite, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and more;
• Use templates and libraries to collaborate with experts;
• Fetch data from several types of sensors and web services using powerful APIs;
• Scale up to thousands of devices quickly; and 
• Deploy your portal to customers using TagoRUN.

TagoIO creates value for different applications, such as Industrial Applications, Smart Agriculture, Precise Real-time Location, Asset Tracking, Telematics for Fleet Management, and more.

3. DATACAKE

Datacake is a low-code, multi-purpose IoT platform that requires no programming skills to create custom IoT applications in minutes. 

• Dashboard Editor: Set configuration using a user-friendly interface, create beautiful Dashboards with easy-to-use Dashboard Editor, and share them using a simple link that everyone can access without registering on Datacake.
• Asset Tracking: Share GPS Data with Datacake, and use Widgets and historical data to track your device's positions.
• LoRaWAN IoT Platform: It offers templates and integrates with LoRaWAN devices and networks.
• Data Storage: Create innumerable database fields per device and use functions for statistics or conversion. Datacake offers a time-series database for the collection and storage of sensor data.
• User Management: Using a simple web interface, you can invite members by Email, create Workspaces, create custom API users and tokens, and add customers and share devices.
• Alerting, Rule Engine: Create alarms that send alerts through SMS, Email, or Push Notifications to members of your Workspace.
• Unlimited Workspaces: Create an unlimited number of workspaces, with each containing its own or shared devices and members.
• Open APIs: Datacake offers multiple Interfaces to communicate with our Backend.
• Industrial IoT Gateway: Enables LTE Connectivity of industrial sensors with cellular-based industrial IoT Gateway.
  

4. THINGSBOARD

ThingsBoard is an open-source IoT platform for data collection, processing, visualization, and device management. It enables device connectivity through IoT protocols - MQTT, HTTP, CoAP, and supports on-premise and cloud deployments. It combines fault tolerance, scalability, and performance to prevent you from losing data.

With Thingsboard, you can - 

• Monitor and securely control your IoT entities using rich server-side APIs. Define relations between your assets, devices, customers, and other entities.
• Collect and store telemetry data in a scalable and fault-tolerant way. Visualize your data with custom or in-built widgets and flexible dashboards and share them with your customers.
• Define data processing rule chains. Transform and normalize your device data. Raise alarms on incoming telemetry events, attribute updates, device inactivity, and user actions.
• Construct your ThingsBoard cluster and get maximum scalability and fault tolerance with microservices architecture.
• Create complex Rule Chains to process data from your devices and match your application-specific use cases.

The Thingsboard features include - Telemetry Data Collection, Multi-tenant installation, Configurable Widgets, Horizontal scalability, Flexible IoT rule chains, Fault Tolerance, Device Management, Device authentication and credentials management, Asset Management, Customization and Integration, and Alarms Management.

ThingsBoard is widely used by IoT enthusiasts and industrial customers with a range of business needs for data processing, privacy, security, analysis, device management, etc.

5. TELIT

With over a thousand of the world's leading IoT experts, Telit helps businesses connect, manage and secure their IoT Deployment. With Telit OneEdge, companies can now accelerate their time-to-market for their new cellular IoT solution. It offers a portfolio of IoT communications modules using a standard footprint to adapt to multiple markets and technologies quickly.

Telit offers IoT SIM cards and global data plans that meet several applications and bandwidth requirements. Available as a subscription-based cloud service, their IoT solutions reduce the complexity of connecting to apps with a comprehensive IoT platform for collecting, managing, and analyzing critical device data.

• Accelerate your business transformation with -
• Condition Monitoring to know the performance of connected devices, machines, and industrial equipment;
• Predictive Maintenance to prevent unplanned downtime;
• Telematics & Fleet Management for real-time data such as vehicle location, speed, fuel use, or driver behavior;
• Asset Tracking to track valuable assets;
• Supply Chain Management to optimize production and real-time visibility;
• Smart Factory / Industry 4.0 to improve decision-making with real-time visibility into manufacturing operations.

Telit's applications span industries and markets worldwide and help businesses achieve operational efficiencies in - 

• Automotive & Transport
• Smart Buildings
• Smart Cities/Smart Transportation
• Smart Energy & Utilities
• Security and Surveillance
• Healthcare
• Retail
• Agriculture

Being a leader in enterprise-grade IoT products and software, Telit has earned a reputation for solving the IoT's most formidable challenges. It helps customers and partners with engineering practices and design methodologies that exceed environmental requirements and industry standards.

6. AXONIZE

Axonize is a no-code platform built for employers and facility managers interested in transforming their spaces into smart spaces. It provides an end-to-end IoT solution to address the business challenges encountered in sectors ranging from energy efficiency to space utilization. It is designed to manage various software, sensors, and devices required to make buildings smarter, safer, and more competitive. 

Axonize is designed to transform offices, buildings, and retail into smart spaces. The platform allows you to scale your projects with unprecedented speed on an unlimited number of devices, systems, and protocols across all verticals and competitive edge from fast prototyping and virtual devices. Axonize enables businesses to reap ROI on smaller projects and eventually scale up to larger ones, monitor all the customers and their various systems from a single platform. 

Azure, Microsoft's cloud-based software, allows an additional layer of security for every smart project. Axonize, combined with Azure, offers a faster time-to-market, reduces overhead costs involved in onboarding new clients, and maximizes scalability. The partnership guides the providers to incorporate event-driven data with business logic and analytics capabilities across devices, systems, applications, and protocols.

7. SOFTWARE AG 

IoT projects can be complex. That's why the Cumulocity IoT platform simplifies things for you with a configuration-driven approach and self-service tools. The platform enables businesses to connect, manage and quickly develop IoT apps, analyze and leverage IoT data, and run IoT in the cloud and on-premises. 

Cumulocity IoT enables you to manage all your devices from one place, from planning and onboarding to monitoring and maintenance. When it comes to integrating IoT data in your services, processes, and systems, Software AG leads the integration process with just one click. 

With Cumulocity IoT, you can operate IoT on-premises, on the cloud, at the edge, or in any combination. You also can run an edge-only solution to perform faster with local data processing. With Cumulocity IoT, businesses can ace in - 

• Democratizing IoT - Self-servicing tools with a configuration-driven approach, seamlessly provided by all components from device connectivity & management up to solution accelerators.
• IoT Capabilities: The 'develop once, deploy everywhere' paradigm simplifies development using uniform APIs, data, and analytics models on clouds, on-premises, and at the edge.
• Integrating IoT Data: The Cumulocity IoT platform provides tools to address the OT-IT gap, including on-premise integration and hybrid cloud.
• Reaping faster ROI: Be it integrating LPWAN devices, reusing ML models to build new ones, or creating IoT streaming analytics scenarios, the Cumulocity IoT experts help you achieve results faster.

Software AG gives businesses the power to decide, act and thrive instantly. It aims to empower businesses to truly become a connected enterprise. 

Key Takeaway

IoT is the most significant trend in the business ecosystem, delivering agility and efficiency to businesses. It operates with the idea that enterprises should have access to data about their products and internal systems. With companies striving to innovate their businesses, it is prudent for them to check out the relevant features of each of these IoT platforms to maximize their benefits.