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One of the strengths of the Electric Imp connectivity platform is that is provides secure, managed, and scalable IP endpoints into devices at the edge of the network – enabling customers to readily and confidently connect their products to the cloud.
This not only applies to individual devices, but also to entire subsystems, for example devices on local ZigBee or XBee networks or other field busses. In those cases, the Electric Imp module acts as a lightweight gateway bridging the local subsystem protocol to IP and the cloud. Unlike Linux-based gateways, these imp-based gateways are very cost- and power effective, provide proven security from the silicon to the cloud, are easily programmable, and fully managed – ideally suited to deliver flexible gateway functionality without the complexity, cost, and security headaches of typical embedded Linux gateways.
Integration with Electric Imp is very easy: Simply connect the subsystem (for example, the XBee coordinator node) to the imp module (via UART, SPI, etc) and use one of our drop-in libraries with your embedded application running on the imp. Easy-to-use APIs now enable you to address devices, send commands, and exchange data from the subsystem into the cloud and vice versa. You can even use the imp to deliver secure over-the-air firmware updates to your subsystem!
You can also easily customize the functionality to your specific needs, integrate specialized vertical field busses, or add custom logic since the imp gateway is programmable (and readily updatable) through our productive Squirrel scripting language and software provisioning system. This opens a wide range of use cases across many industries.
Today, Electric Imp released a new library for XBee/ZigBee to do exactly that, and more fieldbus integrations (Modbus, etc) are in the works, making imp a great and flexible choice for connecting your fieldbus devices securely to the cloud.
You can find the XBee/ZigBee announcement here. The full range of libraries and integrations is available here.
Cheers,
— Terrence
Electric Imp just announced the latest version of our device-side software, impOS(TM) release 34.
impOS is a highly secure, advanced, and efficient software platform for IoT devices that features a sophisticated customer edge application platform, out-of-the-box deployment readiness, and seamless integration into the Electric Imp cloud and security-as-a-service offering.
Among the many enhancements, impOS 34 continuous to lead the industry in terms of security with advanced features such as:
- TLS 1.2 with forward secrecy
- 4096 bit RSA key and certificates
- ed25519 challenge-response
- FIPS 140-2 certified HSM system
Much more information can be found on the official Electric Imp blog.
Cheers,
— Terrence
With more than 600,000 devices shipped and new devices coming online at an increasing rate (see Pitney Bowes and Liberty Pumps announcements) the number of messages processed by Electric Imp platform is hitting some pretty interesting levels.
We have a message counter board in the office – counting real-time end-to-end customer data messages flowing between the devices in the field and the Electric Imp cloud. This counter is reset every day at midnight PDT.
I took a picture the other evening around 10 pm – see above: on track to easily pass 500 million messages for the day. 15 billion messages a month.
So if you need massive scalability for your IoT solution, we’re happy to help 😉
Cheers,
— Terrence
Liberty Pumps has started shipping their next-generation intelligent ’NightEye’ pump, delivering a fully connected and application-enabled product in under 12 months with Electric Imp.
Read the announcement here.
Cheers,
– Terrence
Quick wrap-up of the latest news:
Pitney Bowes just announced that they are now rolling out their new SmartLink device to hundreds of thousands of Pitney Bowes postage meters.
SmartLink IoT technology securely connects the meters in the field to the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud and the Clarity SaaS solutions suite (hosted on GE Predix), resulting in reduced costs and operational efficiencies, enabling new services for Pitney Bowes’ clients, and driving higher customer satisfaction.
The Electric Imp platform is at the heart of this transformation as the industrial-strength, flexible, and cost-effective real-time connectivity platform for the delivery of Pitney Bowes’ revolutionary digital solutions.
Much more detail can be found at:
- A short video with Rick Ryan, Head of Strategic Technology and Innovation Center at Pitney Bowes
- Electric Imp announcement “Pitney Bowes announces SmartLink powered by Electric Imp”
- Pitney Bowes announcement “Pitney Bowes Introduces SmartLink to Deliver Greater Value and Services via the Cloud”
- IOT Journal article “Pitney Bowes’ SmartLink Connects Metering Machines to the Cloud”
- IOT Evolution article “Pitney Bowes Introduces SmartLink, adds Cloud”
Congratulations to Pitney Bowes on a great product and successful launch!
Cheers,
— Terrence
EETimes just published a great interview with the Electric Imp CEO and co-founder Hugo Fiennes, speaking on a wide range of topics including the future of IoT connectivity, how LTE Cat M and NB-1 are game-changers, why commercial and industrial IoT markets are surging, and why Electric Imp is focusing on the hard part of getting IoT connectivity and security right.
Cheers,
— Terrence
One of the great things about the Electric Imp platform is the ecosystem of drop-in libraries that allow developers to easily create highly functional and robust applications both on the device and in the cloud.
Examples:
- Need to integrate with Microsoft Azure? Drop in our Azure IoT Hub library.
- Need a JSON parser? Leverage our optimized JSON encoder/decoder
- Need to support a particular device like the CFAx33 LCD/keypad? Use our existing device driver.
These libraries are very popular and we keep making updates and additions based on developer, customer, and partner demand.
Summary of the recent Updates:
- Autodesk Fusion Connect (previously Autodesk SeeControl): This is a new library released a short while ago that provides integration into the Autodesk Fusion Connect IoT platform.
- Skyhook Precision Location: Another recently released library that allows you to easily and precisely determine your device location based on WiFi, cellular, and other sources.
- Microsoft Azure IoT Hub Client: Integration of the Electric Imp platform with Azure IoT Hub and the wider Microsoft IoT platform, the latest release adds performance improvements.
- AWS Request V4 and AWS Kinesis Firehose: Updated library supporting the latest API versions and compatibility with Dynamo DB.
- JSON Encoder/Decoder: New library for a small and optimized JSON encoder and decoder.
- JS Promises: This library provides the popular JavaScript Promise pattern on the Electric Imp platform, now in version 3.0.0 as a major rewrite with a number of improvements and new features.
- Electric Imp Factory Tools: Provides support for Electric Imp’s connected manufacturing process, now adding imp Factory Agents.
- Electric Imp Bullwinkle and Rocky: Provides a robust communication framework and RESTful API manager, now updated with several optimizations and fixes.
- Electric Imp Pretty Printer: New library that makes prettified output for application data easy.
- CFAx33 LCD/keypad: New device driver supporting the CrystalFonts CFAx33 LCD/keypad hardware.
Furthermore, we are working on upcoming libraries for IBM Watson IoT integration, Modbus-RTU support, a USB driver framework, printer drivers, and more.
For a full list of libraries, see here. So, get cranking on that code and stay tuned for more! 😉
Cheers,
— Terrence
Quick update: Electric Imp recently released multi-user support in our connected product development tools.
Why is this important? One of the differentiating features of the Electric Imp platform has always been the ability to rapidly develop and securely deploy custom applications both on the Electric Imp-powered devices in the field as well as the Electric Imp Cloud.
With the new multi-user support, companies can now have different collaborators with different roles work on product development together, improving the development process, bringing in multiple parties in a reliable manner, and reducing friction and improving time to market.
As always, Electric Imp developer accounts are free – so give the new features a try (and order a Electric Imp dev kit along the way).
Cheers,
— Terrence
Electric Imp will be at IoT DevCon in Santa Clara, May 25-26:
- Visit our stand to meet Electric Imp experts, see demos, and discuss your IoT questions
- Come to my talk “50 Billion Messages and Counting: Lessons Learned from Shipping Real-World IoT”, Thu (May 26), 3 pm
Looking forward to seeing you!
Cheers,
— Terrence
By now it should be pretty clear that security is a critical topic in any serious IoT offering. Mistakes can ruin your business.
While many people in the industry are still debating IoT security and the best ways to achieve it, Electric Imp has already shipped more than 500,000 devices with our comprehensive end-to-end security architecture and ‘security as a service’ model – which means Electric Imp provides ongoing security maintenance for as long as you need your devices to be connected.
We deliver worry-free connectivity so you can focus on your product.
For a brief overview, check out the short 1-minute video.
Cheers,
— Terrence
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