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| Framework Makes IoT Possible |
| "To achieve a comprehensive IoT solution and analyze large amounts of data often turns out to be much more complicated than expected", said Louis Lu, Senior Manager of Advantech Embedded Core Group. |
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| In an IoT environment, many end-user devices and pieces of equipment have to be inter-connected. Many data-related things must be considered as well, such as methods for collecting and transmitting large amounts of data, how to analyze data from different sub-systems stored in cloud storage, and determining how the analyzed results will benefit the system integrator. |
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| Aside from technical challenges, a comprehensive IoT solution must include data security and information privacy as well as to provide effective and suitable business models that meet market demands. To satisfy various requirements from system developers in different industries, Advantech developed WISE-PaaS, an integrated platform to fulfill a wide range of such industry requirements. |
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| "Different industries will have different requirements, different protocols, and different ways of communication. As a result, it is crucial during the initial stages of development to take a close look at these requirements and protocols, in order to design the necessary bridging interfaces and flexible modules that are compatible with new, old, or different protocols. WISE-PaaS is based on such a concept and provides an open, integrated and standardized platform for its users and developers", Lu continued. |
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| RESTful APIs for Easy Access across Different Programming Platforms |
| The WISE-PaaS platform uses RESTful APIs web services and MQTT messaging protocol to establish connection and communication among the sub-systems. Advantech cooperates with customers and third-party partners to fulfill a wide variety of IoT project scenarios. The WISE-PaaS platform software, as well as its system board and wireless sensor drivers, consist of open standardized APIs and protocols. The flexible and expandable architecture of the platform allows for seamless integration between a diversity of cloud solutions and equipment. The platform plays a key role in the development of IoT environments, analyzing IoT big data, continuing optimized work flow and future expandability of the system. |
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| Open APIs for communicating with the platform are absolutely necessary. The purpose of these APIs is to allow the programmer to make function calls in order to access the system's features without worrying about the underlying source code or understanding how the internal hardware works. By calling the different APIs, the WISE-PaaS platform easily adapts to different working environments, and supports modular functionality according to customer's work flow. |
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| Open APIs for communicating with the platform are absolutely necessary. The purpose of these APIs is to allow the programmer to make function calls in order to access the system's features without worrying about the underlying source code or understanding how the internal hardware works. By calling the different APIs, the WISE-PaaS platform easily adapts to different working environments, and supports modular functionality according to customer's work flow. |
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| Besides making things simpler for the programmer, improving ease of application development and the development environment are also important. Lu states, "Since web and management are the main focus. Advantech will continue to improve and create practical web UIs by using the popular RESTful APIs as the basis of development for the WISE-PaaS platform." |
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| Although other web APIs are available, Lu believes RESTful APIs hold several major advantages over the others; they are easy to develop, compliant with existing web services, and have a low learning curve. Since IoT sensor devices have lower bandwidth, smaller packet size requirements and provide cross-platform support among different operating systems, RESTful APIs truly are the best choice in the development of WISE-PaaS. |
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| To satisfy different industry requirements, WISE-PaaS already offers more than 150 RESTful APIs. By the end of 2015, over 200 different APIs should be available. Advantech will collaborate with its alliance partners to further increase the number of APIs as well as enhance existing applications. |
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| WISE-Cloud Alliance Creates a Win-Win Scenario |
| In the age of IoT on the cusp of large data amounts, Lu stressed that WISE-PaaS facilitates different IoT solutions, on the basis of frameworks, for companies in different industries. To this end, Advantech will keep developing and expanding the WISE-PaaS service, and seek to collaborate with important partners like Microsoft, IBM and Cisco in the WISE-Cloud Alliance. In addition, through collaboration of advanced cloud computing technology and data analytics, the market place will offer ever more technical and rich apps for developers. Furthermore, Advantech provides a wide array of software development kits and professional consulting services, while delivering customizable IoT models in harmonious cooperation to the IoT industry. |
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