Blog posts – IoT

How much can an Enterprise save using a hyperscale IoT approach? On average 27.8%

Business Case of a Hyperscale IoT Connectivity Approach

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This is an excerpt from our white paper Hyperscale Cellular IoT. The full white paper is available here if you like what you read. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Download White Paper

AVERAGE ENTERPRISE COST SAVINGS WITH A HYPERSCALE IOT APPROACH

Average Enterprise Cost savings with a hyperscale IoT approach

Analyst firm Transforma Insights estimates that enterprise customers using a Hyperscale IoT connectivity service can save on average the equivalent of 27.8 percent of the cost of global IoT connectivity. That equates to an astonishing 117 billion USD globally between 2020 and 2030. The functionality offered by the Enea Aptilo IoT CCS is crucial for mobile operators to deliver such Hyperscale IoT connectivity service. We have already won five industry awards for our innovative hyperscale approach to deliver granular policy control, security and automation.

The key in this category was to bring real innovation in the market, and this is what Enea does. One jury member liked the fact that Aptilo IoT CCS addresses a real problem for mobile operators, enabling them to profitably launch IoT services while meeting the needs of enterprise customers, and another member said it had hyperscale potential.

Matt Hatton – Transforma Insights

Presenting the Jury’s motivation at the 2021 World Communications Awards (WCA) – IoT Innovation Award

The largest cost-saving is in Device-to-Cloud Integration (7.5%), closely followed by faster Time-to-Market (6.4%) and lower costs of providing the equivalent levels of Security (5.3%). Enterprises can also save a lot (5.9%) by using eSIM / eUICC and localizing the connectivity onto a domestic network, avoiding regulatory or commercial compliance issues.

Learn more about Global IoT Connectivity in our upcoming blog post.

The full report from Transforma Insights is available here.

 

IoT CCS shortlisted for three awards in the Telecoms World Middle East Awards

Enea Secures Nominations Hat-Trick for Aptilo IoT Connectivity Control Service

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The Enea Aptilo IoT Connectivity Control Service™ (IoT CCS) has racked up more award wins and nominations! This time Telecoms World Middle East Awards, organized by Terrapin, has shortlisted IoT CCS for three different categories. The award categories are Innovation, Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure, and Digital Transformation.

Winners will be announced at a gala award ceremony on May 24 in Dubai.

IoT CCS is one of a kind, giving operators and IoT companies unrivaled control over their cellular IoT connectivity. Hosted on Amazon AWS, we deliver IoT CCS as a unique instance per mobile operator, providing policy control, security, and automation for both IoT users and mobile operators.

“We are proud to be shortlisted for three significant awards categories at one of the region’s most prestigious events,” said Johan Terve, Senior Director of Marketing, Enea. “To be honored for our innovation and technology by industry peers is humbling. Innovation is close to our hearts, and we will continue to push the envelope to deliver outstanding products that make a real difference to the telecoms industry.”

The awards ceremony will take place on May 24 at the Ritz Carlton, Dubai, attended by some of the largest operators in the Middle East and leading industry luminaries.

We are all keeping our fingers crossed!

MORE ABOUT THE THREE AWARD CATEGORIES

Innovation Award – Vendor

This award recognizes the vendor that has demonstrated an innovative technological advancement to telecommunications which has helped deliver an innovative service or product to the market. This includes usability, technological innovation, customer uptake, its launch and impact on customers.

Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure

This award will recognize the company that has pioneered the way with virtual or cloud computing initiatives. Their success will be judged on the contribution to the development of the SDN & NFV across the ecosystem and how they have progressed network innovation internally and externally.

Digital Transformation Award – Vendor

This award will recognize the vendor which has successfully offered the best solution available for digital transformation and has become the leading solution provider in their region. Their success will be judged on their ability to provide a relevant, useful and ground-breaking product.

IoT auto-configuration key to scale IoT

Every IoT Customization Mustn’t Be a Project

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This is an excerpt from our white paper Hyperscale Cellular IoT. The full white paper is available here if you like what you read. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Download White Paper

We believe that there is enormous potential to stop making customized development as soon a customer wants something beyond a standard service.

AUTOMATION IS KEY TO SCALE IOT

As discussed in our previous post, Why Cellular IoT is Another Story, many mobile operators only have two IoT offerings: very basic services or costly tailor-made deployments. Also, many tailor-made implementations can be very similar, showing the potential to deliver those more cost-effectively. With a Hyperscale solution, such as Aptilo IoT CCS, it is easy for mobile operators to be agile and create new value-added services that fit the requirements of multiple customers. As a result, it will be possible to move the bulk of customization projects over to this programmable layer of IoT connectivity management in the cloud. This introduces unprecedented speed to the market and increased flexibility, instantly deployed with any customer.

In this auto-customization approach with self-management portals, customers can make defined customizations themselves, tailor connectivity policies and manage their firewall settings and Enterprise VPNs.

Such an approach will allow mobile operators to scale their IoT connectivity services with high profit while keeping customers happy by delivering a tailored service. They can now focus more on the advanced tailor-made development they still need.

The logic and security part of a tailor-made development project can also benefit from being handled in the cloud. It is faster to deploy new server or firewall nodes, and it is possible to dedicate and isolate specific nodes for the customer.

 

Layers in a Hyperscale IoT solution

Layers in a Hyperscale IoT Connectivity Solution

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This is an excerpt from our white paper Hyperscale Cellular IoT. If you like what you read, the full white paper is available here. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Download White Paper

Mobile operators must unchain themselves from the strict consideration of 3GPP and mobile core nodes’ implementation and upgrade cycles. The agility they need can be obtained by adding a programmable layer of IoT policy control, security, and automation on top of what they already have.

THE FOUR LAYERS

Let’s examine the four layers in a Hyperscale Cellular IoT solution. In the first layer, we have the mobile operator’s existing cellular network with its mobile core.

The second layer is the global network of MNO partners, either in bilateral agreements or through connectivity hubs. IoT devices can instantly be connected using data roaming. Mobile operators can also localize eSIM/eUICC over the air in countries where permanent roaming is impossible. This means they can offer their customers instant local subscriptions globally in their partner networks.

In the third layer, the mobile operator uses hyper scalers, such as Amazon AWS to deliver a programmable and flexible layer of IoT policy control, security, and automation. All networks, the operator’s own and their partners’, connect to this layer through standard interfaces (Gi/SGi/N6 and REST for the control plane and IPsec for the data/user plane). With this layer in place, mobile operators will keep control even if the device has been localized.

In the last but not least important layer, we find customer self-management portals and the IoT connectivity management platform. Here, the mobile operator can build a web GUI or use APIs and integrate it with the third layer and relevant systems to give their customers complete control over the service. This setup is crucial for the scalability of the mobile operator’s IoT business. The goal is to make the IoT service as much as possible into a “self-playing piano.” The operator’s operations team can also use this to help customers who do not have the skills to use self-management capabilities.

 

The four layers in aHyperscale Cellular IoT solution

“We have only seen the beginning of hyperscale IoT solutions. The concept of network slicing in 5G is very well suited for this approach. Operators will scale their innovations like never before.”

HYPERSCALE IOT CONNECTIVITY AS A SERVICE

Mobile operators do not have to build this hyperscale programmable IoT connectivity layer themselves.

IoT CCS Hyperscale programmable layer

There are many advantages to place all the complexity in the cloud, creating a separate programmable layer of policy control, security, and automation. Mobile operators get the freedom to provide optimal and unified IoT offerings with global scalability, something only hyperscalers can provide. With this approach, mobile operators have created something new and groundbreaking – a hyperscale IoT Connectivity service.

But mobile operators do not have to build this hyperscale programmable IoT connectivity layer themselves. Go to our page about Aptilo IoT Connectivity Control Service™ (IoT CCS). Here you can explore more about Aptilo IoT CCS, our pay-as-you-grow service offering to mobile operators.

 

Hyperscale IoT innovation

Operators have to re-think IoT – Hyperscale Innovation

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This is an excerpt from our white paper Hyperscale Cellular IoT. If you like what you read, the full white paper is available here. Don’t hesitate to
contact us if you have any questions.

Download White Paper

The focus in our industry is always whether the network equipment has the features to perform a certain task and allow the network to scale with millions of subscribers. But is this the right discussion to have for complex IoT services?

Maybe the question below is a better question to ask yourself as a mobile operator.

“Will my organization be able to deliver on the agility, speed and cost-efficiency needed in the IoT era?”

WHAT MOBILE OPERATORS HAVE VERSUS WHAT THEY NEED

What Mobile Operators Have

What IoT mobile operators have

Mobile operators have a mobile core that, for good reasons, has been built for stability, not agility. They have IoT connectivity platforms capable of handling SIM management and producing billing data. They can provide global connectivity through roaming partners. Some may also use eSIMs to localize the connectivity to partner MNOs networks and provide a service that is compliant with regulations.

What Mobile Operators Need

What IoT mobile operators need - the missing layer

But we believe there is a missing layer. A layer that provides the flexibility and security that IoT connectivity services crave. This layer offers adaptive agility by making it as much as possible into a self-playing piano with automation and customer self-management. The connectivity must also be secured by VPNs and next-generation Firewalls that each customer can configure according to their needs.

HYPERSCALE INNOVATION

The three corner stones in a hyperscale IoT connectivity solution

We must all respect that the mobile core and OSS/BSS teams always will prioritize stability before being fast on their feet, implementing every change requested by demanding customers. Wouldn’t it be great if mobile operators could ‘have their cake and eat it too’?

We think they can!

Mobile operators must unchain themselves from the strict consideration of 3GPP and the implementation and upgrade cycles of their mobile core nodes.

“What Enea suggest is that mobile operators leave their core networks untouched and then use hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) to add the necessary IoT functionality “

There are three corner stones in such a cloud-native hyperscale IoT connectivity solution:

1. Adaptive agility

  • Automate common customization tasks, such as VPNs and customer-specific policies.
  • A high degree of customer self-management.
  • Extensive APIs for smooth cloud and edge integration.
  • Control of all important settings such as IP-assignment.
  • Ability to keep these settings over partner networks to provide a unified IoT service.

2. Security

  • End-to-end IoT security.
  • Secure software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) customer experience through next-gen firewalls.
  • Automatic setup of customer VPNs.
  • Advanced routing of the traffic, some through VPNs and all other directly to the Internet.

3. Global Access

  • Roaming and in some countries use eSIM/eUICC technology to localize the connectivity to comply with local regulations.
  • Important to still provide a unified service experience across partner networks (keep IP address etc.)

Don’t miss our blog post in two weeks, where we will talk about the different layers of functions needed in a Hyperscale IoT Connectivity solution and the role of Enea Aptilo IoT Connectivity Control Service (IoT CCS) in such a solution.