A framework for evaluating Internet-of-Things platforms: Application provider viewpoint

Widespread adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) applications assumes a sustainable ecosystem of firms creating, distributing, and using these applications. Such an ecosystem often forms around a platform that implements commonly used functionality and offers it to the members of the ecosystem for creating applications and services. In IoT, such a platform may be materialized in a form of a cloud platform that supports the management of connected devices, and the development and use of the applications based on them. A number of cloud platforms targeting IoT applications are available in the market; to prosper, they need to assist the providers of the IoT applications in designing and developing the applications, as well as in deploying and operating the application software. In this paper, a framework for evaluating the IoT platforms from the perspective of how widely they cover the potential needs of the application providers is introduced. Based on the framework, the maturity of the available IoT platforms is evaluated, by using the publicly available information about the platforms' features and supporting services. As the results of this initial analysis suggest, none of the platforms today offers the comprehensive support. This can be seen as a factor contributing to a slow adaption of the IoT platforms, and therefore to the slower-than-expected takeoff of the IoT ecosystem in general.