Overcoming the Flexibility vs. Cost Dilemma to Create Custom Industrial IoT Solutions

Imagine this scenario: A large, well-established manufacturing company has spent months – and countless resources – developing its IoT ecosystem. Initially, they chose a low/no-code platform to speed up the process, lured by promises of quick deployment and early outcomes.??

However, as they began developing their applications, they encountered severe limitations: the low/no-code platform wasn’t flexible enough to accommodate their complex needs and unique workflows. Frustrated, they considered a switch to a more robust IoT-as-a-Service (IoTaaS) solution, only to find that the costs, time, and risks associated with building and maintaining these IoT platforms is huge.?

This experience is shared by many in the industrial IoT (IIoT) space. Companies often dive into the promise of low/no-code or IoTaaS platforms, to hit barriers when scaling or developing bespoke applications to meet strategic needs. The challenge is that building applications that allow for meaningful differentiation in the market typically requires extensive customization, robust security, scalability, and cost-effectiveness — qualities that most rapid development solutions struggle to balance.??

This article successfully navigates the dilemma between flexibility, cost, and scalability. By breaking down the components of an ideal IIoT platform, it highlights essential aspects that enable fast, affordable, and reliable application creation without compromising on scalability and affordability.?

The Core Challenge: Customization vs. Affordability?

Industrial OEMs need customized solutions that differentiate them from their competitors. However, these customizations must also be affordable and manageable in terms of cost, time, and resources. Industrial IoT projects often get derailed because balancing flexibility, cost, and speed-to-market is notoriously difficult. Many businesses find that low-code platforms can’t handle the depth of customization required, while IoTaaS solutions deliver the needed complexity but at an unfeasibly high price point.??

The application enablement platform (AEP) approach keeps these complexities in mind and resolves for the underlying conflict. The aim is to build a custom IoT Platform with an Application Creation Engine that is scalable, secure, and flexible, that speeds new differentiated application creation and deployment, all while cutting the cost, risk, and time-to-market for industrial OEMs.??

AEP gives OEMs and Enterprises the ability to build, deploy, and manage highly differentiated applications – but at the same time, dramatically cut the number of new lines of code needed to accomplish this.??

The Foundation of a Scalable IIoT Platform???

For any solution to be viable in the long-term, it must begin with a solid, reliable foundation. The Flex83 platform has a robust infrastructure designed for the complexities of enterprise-grade applications. The foundational layer typically includes high-performance big-data infrastructure, fault tolerance, scalability, cyber-security, and support for large-scale data ingestion and processing.?

The core services of the platform act as the backbone for IIoT applications, performing crucial tasks like data storage, device management, identity access management, data transformation, notifications, scheduling, and much more. These capabilities enable developers to assemble applications quickly and efficiently without having to reinvent the wheel. By providing these services as SDKs and APIs, the Flex Platform ensures that the heavy lifting of backend operations is managed reliably, allowing developers to focus on crafting unique features and functionalities.??

Accelerating Application Development with Modular Design Patterns?

For businesses looking to create differentiated applications without any demerits of Low/No-Code or Homegrown development approaches, modularity is key. A well-structured IIoT platform should offer a “catalyst” or code layer, which includes pre-built templates or “design patterns” that serve as a foundation for new custom applications. The Flex foundation, often drawn from successful industry practices, covers common IIoT needs, from device onboarding to data collection, transformation, analysis, and visualization. By providing these patterns as templates, OEMs can build out essential features quickly and focus on business logic to ensure competitive product differentiation.??

For instance, if a company needs specific analytics for asset monitoring, they can use pre-configured analytics patterns within the platform and use these references for their specific requirements. This approach drastically reduces the lines of new code required, accelerating the development cycle and reducing associated costs and risks–gets you a commercial-ready application in few weeks.??

Leveraging Core Services for Rapid Application Creation?

One of the key advantages of a strong IIoT platform is the availability of comprehensive core services. By packaging these as ready-to-use SDKs and APIs, the Flex core provides an extensive toolkit for developers. Essential functions such as device management, analytics, notifications, data transformation, and scheduling are readily available and easy to integrate, allowing developers to concentrate on adding value and differentiation instead of building core services from scratch.?

Moreover, these core services have already been tested and optimized for performance and scalability, so developers can rely on them for building applications that are both efficient and secure. This way, the total development time is greatly reduced, as most of the infrastructure and backend work is already done. With the core services doing the heavy lifting, development teams can focus their time and resources on innovation.?

The Importance of Platform Flexibility and IP Ownership?

?An ideal IIoT platform offers a high degree of flexibility by providing a clear separation between platform infrastructure and application development. This ensures that while the core platform infrastructure— including big data services, security, and scalability — remains intact, OEMs have complete ownership of the applications they build. This layer of separation also simplifies updates and maintenance, as changes in applications don’t impact the underlying infrastructure and vice versa.??

This level of flexibility is particularly beneficial for businesses that need to retain control over their intellectual property (IP). It allows them to make targeted updates to the applications without needing to re-engineer the core platform, a process that could be costly and time-consuming. For companies that operate across multiple markets, retaining ownership also simplifies regulatory compliance and customer support by allowing greater customization to meet diverse needs.??

Rapid Development Cycles: Proof of Concept to Commercial Offering?

The efficiency of a modular, highly flexible platform allows companies to test and iterate on ideas faster than ever before. Here’s a breakdown of how a scalable IIoT platform can accelerate development timelines:??

1. Proof of Concept (PoC): With just a few modifications to an existing template or design pattern, industrial OEMs can connect device data flows to the Flex platform and start testing their application within days. The PoC can then be used to validate the idea, secure stakeholder buy-in and test the application’s core functionality before investing further.??

2. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Within weeks, OEMs can refine their PoC into an MVP by adding targeted modifications like custom analytics, specialized dashboards, or integrations with other enterprise systems. By iterating on a tailor-fit and faster time to market MVP, they can get direct user feedback and better understand which features will drive the most product value.?

3. Commercial Application: Once the MVP has proven successful, they can continue enhancing the application, adding advanced analytics, business logic, and further integrations as needed. With a platform designed to reduce new lines of code, industrial OEMs can develop a full-fledged commercial offering in a matter of months, rather than years.??

This structured approach to application development drastically reduces the time and costs typically associated with creating new IIoT applications, providing a faster path to market and an edge over competitors.??

Unlocking Market Potential with a Comprehensive, Scalable Solution?

?For companies struggling with the limitations of low-code platforms or the high costs of IoTaaS solutions, a modular, scalable, and flexible IIoT platform offers the best of both worlds. By providing a reliable core foundation, modular design patterns, and an extensive suite of core services, it equips businesses with the tools to create highly differentiated applications at a fraction of the cost and time. The separation of infrastructure and application layers enables companies to retain ownership of their IP while streamlining updates and maintenance.??

As the demands of the IIoT world continue to evolve, the companies that can rapidly innovate and customize their applications will be best positioned to capture new opportunities. With the right platform in place, industrial companies can finally balance flexibility and affordability, transforming their IIoT ideas into market-ready solutions that drive lasting business impact.??

This detailed exploration of the IIoT flexibility vs. cost dilemma highlights the key elements that allow companies to innovate effectively without sacrificing financial stability. By using an approach focused on flexibility, scalability, and reduced development times, organizations can successfully navigate the complex industrial IoT landscape.?