Building a Highly Scalable IoT Platform for a Global Security Leader
In 2018, our long-term customer, a leading Building Security and Building Management Systems (BMS) provider with an established presence across the USA, Canada, the Middle East, and Africa, recognized a pivotal market shift: the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT).
The customer was a global leader in traditional security hardware—including DVR, CCTV Camera, and Access Control Systems (RFID). They saw a strategic opportunity to leverage their existing strengths—a robust dealer setup, an international sales structure, and strong ties within the China manufacturing industry—to introduce new, connected solutions. Their goal was clear: to enter the IoT domain by developing a sophisticated, highly scalable platform. They approached us to become their dedicated technology partner for this ambitious venture.
1. Core Challenges: Technology, Trust, and Cost
While the market opportunity was immense, the customer faced critical, intertwined challenges that necessitated an external, trusted partner.
A. Secured-Zone Data Handling
We engineered a strictly secured-zone for data processing and query execution. This foundational requirement ensured that all internal database schemas and documents were queried and processed without ever leaving the client's secured environment. This met the stringent security and confidentiality requirements (like GDPR/CCPA) necessary for the FinTech domain.
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Lack of Internal Capability: They did not have the necessary software development team or experience to architect, build, and maintain a complex, highly scalable, and real-time IoT platform.
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Need for End-to-End Ownership: The required solution demanded not only the core platform but also full end-to-end development of the administration portal, customer portals, and mobile applications, including taking ownership of the technology stack, DevOps, and ongoing support.
B. Trust, IP Protection, and Cost Management
Outsourcing core technology involved significant business risks:
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Intellectual Property (IP) Threat: The primary threat was related to trust and protecting their valuable intellectual properties. They required a partner who was not only technically proven but also absolutely trustworthy.
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Cost Control: A core business requirement was the need to maintain a less and fixed running cost, necessitating a highly efficient, self-managed software solution hosted in the cloud.
The customer ultimately chose us, based on our track record of success in delivering large-scale IoT projects, specifically our expertise in developing Realtime Stateful Rule Engines and Alarms & Notification systems. This foundation of technical competence and established trust secured a partnership that is now in its eighth year.
2. The Solution: A Scalable, Open-Source IoT Platform
We were tasked with architecting and delivering a highly scalable and cost-effective solution that leveraged self-managed open-source technologies, hosted in the cloud, to ensure a fixed, predictable operating cost. The platform was designed from the ground up to support the customer's Dealer and multi-level customer model.
A. Platform Architecture and Technology Stack
The solution was built upon proven Apache open-source technologies to maximize performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency:
| Component | Technology | Role and Function |
|---|---|---|
| Messaging & Broker | Eclipse Mosquitto Broker, Apache Kafka | Handles secured data transfer, message queuing, device-specific format transformation, and communication with devices. |
| Real-time Processing | Scala & Apache Spark | The foundation of the Core Platform Rule Engine. It runs as Spark jobs, triggered by messages in Kafka. |
| Device State Engine | Apache Ignite | Maintains a real-time, virtual copy (state) of every connected device for low-latency rule execution and stateful logic. |
| Time-Series Storage | Apache Cassandra | Used for high-volume, high-velocity storage of all historical time-series device data. |
B. Key Components and Functionality
The platform is composed of interconnected modules that handle the complete life cycle of an IoT device and its data:
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MQTT Broker & Message Listeners: Responsible for secure subscription/publishing, data transformation, and integration with Kafka Queues.
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Core Platform (Rule Engine): Executes defined rules based on data points and device state maintained in Ignite. It is responsible for raising, normalizing, and processing alarms, and maintains the time-series data in Cassandra.
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Notification Engine: Sends critical alerts and control commands through multiple channels: email, WhatsApp, phone call, text messages, and push notifications.
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Customer & Dealer Portal & Mobile App: Provides a real-time, customizable dashboard (using web-sockets), device operation controls, rule setup, and notification subscription management.
3. Platform Maturity and Versatility
The platform is now highly matured and robust, capable of handling a massive volume and variety of connected devices:
Comprehensive Device & Protocol Support
The solution supports a diverse array of physical devices and communication methods, ensuring it is future-proof:
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Protocols Supported: LoRaWAN, MQTT, UDP, HTTP, COAP, Web Socket, HTTP Polling, and NB-IoT.
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Devices Onboarded: Includes 100+ wireless sensors, 20+ wireless control devices, 10+ gateway models, cameras, DVR systems, and BLE tags.
Business Solutions Enabled
The flexible architecture allows our customer to quickly build and launch solutions for diverse vertical markets:
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Energy & Water Usage optimization
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Smart Hospital Management
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Elderly Care Monitoring
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Agriculture/Green House Monitoring
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Smart Parking solutions
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Cold Storage management and compliance
4. Value Added and Business Outcomes
The technical partnership successfully mitigated the customer's technology risks and empowered them to become a leader in connected security and smart solutions.
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Managed Technology Risk: We fully managed the technology stack, DevOps, and support, allowing the customer to focus entirely on product design, manufacturing, and international sales.
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Protected Intellectual Property (IP): The long-term, trust-based relationship ensured that their critical IP was fully protected while the technology was built externally.
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Accelerated Market Entry: We built a platform that allows for the easy onboarding of new device models and manufacturer-specific implementations, dramatically reducing time-to-market for new connected products.
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Enabled User Control: The Mobile App interface provides customers with the power to easily onboard, monitor, control their devices, and configure their notifications, directly enhancing the end-user experience.
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Scalability & Cost Efficiency: The open-source architecture provided the necessary scale and performance while achieving the customer’s objective of a predictable and competitive operational cost.
Ready to transform your data challenges into a market-leading digital solution? Contact our strategy team today.