The Five Clouds of IoT

2022-07-13
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The Five Clouds of IoT is a tool I’ve been developing for some time as a way to help people understand the role of the cloud. This is a mental model I developed as a way to explain service offerings to people interested in building fleets of IoT devices. It includes services developed in-house and services they choose to purchase from external providers.

We will discuss the genesis of these classifications and why there is more than one cloud type in the first place. It’s important to focus our understanding of these broadly-general terms (like cloud and IoT). Doing so lets us define what problems need to be solved in the IoT space, and how best to approach them.


'The Five Clouds of IoT is a mental model I developed as a way to explain service offerings to people interested in building fleets of IoT devices.' -GoliothClick To Tweet

IoT Cloud Services

When starting a business or looking for an enhancement, it can be difficult to choose between all the different service offerings in the marketplace.

As a first step, the following questions should be considered:

  • How are you connecting to the internet?

  • What kind of device are you building on?

  • What’s the scale of your deployment?

  • What’s your cost and cost structure?

  • What is your business model?

But the most important questions to answer for picking cloud services are:

  • What are you willing to outsource?

  • What should you outsource?

  • What would get you to market faster if you went with a provider?

From there we can have a more grounded conversation on which aspects of the cloud are needed and which combination of providers they might want to evaluate. Very few service offerings will cover every aspect of an IoT deployment and business needs.

With each conversation I had, the more I started to realize that there might be different types of IoT cloud solutions. In fact, I think there are five. And while in practice different cloud companies might offer overlapping features, describing them as separate clouds will help us better understand the core strength of each cloud type and why we might want to use them.

Why Are There Five Clouds of IoT?

Here are The Five Clouds of IoT:

  1. Device Cloud

  2. Connectivity Cloud

  3. Data Cloud

  4. Application Cloud

  5. Development Cloud

These are classifications based on the service offerings of companies throughout the ecosystem, including the company I founded a couple of years ago (Golioth). However, each cloud represents a business case being served. Each cloud type has a prime example of at least one company serving a particular area of focus. That’s how big the market is and how much need exists for services.

Bringing IoT to the Masses

Each IoT cloud solution helps make deployments possible without massive internal cloud teams at a device maker or service company in the IoT space. Someone who wants to keep their core team small can do so by hiring out parts of the business to different service companies representing one or more of the Five Clouds. They focus on a particular part of the business and lean on service providers to help scale their applications.

We’ve already mentioned Golioth as one example of a device cloud. We are a device cloud because we focus on the management and security of devices and the data they produce. An example of a different cloud would be Soracom, which is a connectivity cloud that addresses different aspects of connecting devices to the internet that spans SIMs, data plans, VPNs, and more.

The key here is that the fundamental focus of a cloud like Golioth and Soracom are different: device offerings vs. connectivity offerings. You need to understand what problem you want to solve when choosing between clouds. For example, why you would want to leverage Golioth, Soracom, or both.

The Best Cloud for You

As you start to put together your business needs for your company or your next startup idea, you will be able to decide which clouds you will need and find the best companies that can help you achieve your goals.



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  • Cloud Software

  • Internet of Things


  • Cloud Software

  • Internet of Things

  • IoT Business Strategy

参考译文
物联网五云

物联网五云是我开发了一段时间的工具,用来帮助人们理解云的作用。这是我开发的一种心智模型,用于向那些对构建物联网设备群感兴趣的人解释服务产品。它包括内部开发的服务和他们选择从外部供应商购买的服务。我们将首先讨论这些分类的起源,以及为什么有一种以上的云类型。重点理解这些宽泛的术语(如云和物联网)是很重要的。这样做可以让我们定义物联网领域需要解决哪些问题,以及如何最好地解决这些问题。当开始一项业务或寻找一种增强时,很难在市场上所有不同的服务产品中做出选择。但在选择云服务时,最重要的问题是:在此基础上,我们可以就云的哪些方面是需要的,以及他们可能想要评估的提供商组合进行更深入的讨论。很少有服务产品能够涵盖物联网部署和业务需求的方方面面。随着每一次交谈,我越来越意识到,可能有不同类型的物联网云解决方案。事实上,我认为有五个。虽然在实践中,不同的云公司可能会提供重叠的功能,但将它们描述为独立的云将有助于我们更好地理解每种云类型的核心优势,以及我们可能希望使用它们的原因。以下是物联网五云:这些分类是基于整个生态系统中公司提供的服务,包括我几年前创建的公司(Golioth)。然而,每个云都代表一个正在服务的业务案例。每种云类型都有一个最好的例子,至少有一家公司服务于特定的关注领域。这就是市场的规模和对服务的需求。每个物联网云解决方案都有助于在没有设备制造商或服务公司的大量内部云团队的情况下实现物联网领域的部署。想要保持核心团队规模较小的人可以通过将部分业务出租给代表五云中的一个或多个的不同服务公司来实现。他们专注于业务的特定部分,并依靠服务提供商来帮助扩展他们的应用程序。我们已经提到Golioth是设备云的一个例子。我们是一个设备云,因为我们专注于设备及其产生的数据的管理和安全。另一种云的例子是Soracom,这是一种连接云,解决了将设备连接到互联网的不同方面,横跨SIMs、数据计划、vpn等。这里的关键在于,像Golioth和Soracom这样的云服务的根本重点是不同的:设备产品和连接产品。您需要了解在选择云时要解决什么问题。例如,为什么你想利用Golioth、Soracom或两者。当您开始整合您的公司的业务需求或您的下一个创业想法时,您将能够决定您将需要哪些云,并找到能够帮助您实现目标的最佳公司。

  • 云计算
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