Summary of 2019 Gartner IIoT Platform Report

Last year, during this time I had done a deep dive into Gartner's first ever IIoT platform quadrant report. Gartner has now come up with its 2019 report. Let's try to understand how has the IIoT platform ecosystem changed since last year.

Magic Quadrant 2018

Magic Quadrant 2019

A few important changes between 2018 and 2019:

• There were 11 players in 2018. There are 16 players in 2019.
• SAP, which was a visionary in 2018 quadrant has been dropped from 2019 quadrant because the company ended its reseller agreement for IoT Device Management. Until recently, SAP sold a co-branded product from Telit named “SAP IoT Device Management by Telit.” As SAP no longer offers IoT Device Management as part of its product catalog for cloud or on-premises deployments, the SAP IIoT platforms do not conform to the inclusion criteria.
• Software AG has moved ahead from niche to visionary.
• Just like 2018, there are no players in Challengers and Leaders quadrant.
• The following new players have made an entry into the quadrants:

1. GE Digital
2. Eurotech
3. ROOTCLOUD
4. Exosite
5. Davra
6. Litmus Automation

ROOTCLOUD is the most interesting of the new entrants because it is the only Chinese IIoT platform.

Strategic Planning Assumption

In 2018 Report

?By 2020, on-premises Internet of Things (IoT) platforms coupled with edge computing will account for up to 60% of industrial IoT (IIoT) analytics, up from less than 10% today.

?By the end of 2022, the lack of compelling platforms in the market will induce 15% of manufacturers to develop or acquire IoT platforms, up from less than 1% today. 

In 2020 Report

• By 2023, 30% of industrial enterprises will have full, on-premises deployments of IIoT platforms, up from 15% in 2019.

IIoT Platform Capabilities

The IIoT platform is composed of the following technology functions:

• Device management 
• Integration 
• Data management
• Analytics 
• Application enablement and management 
• Security 

Market Overview

Gartner has observed the following changes in the market and user behavior since the last Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT Platforms.

• IoT-OT Convergence and Virtualized and Software-Defined Control
• Managed IoT Services in Industrial Enterprises

Some important Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

To qualify for inclusion, vendors must conform to the following criteria:

• The vendor must be a supplier of IoT software and IoT cloud services to asset-intensive industries with multiple accounts running the platform in production in at least two defined sectors.
• The vendor must have multiple accounts running the platform in production in at least two of the following major regions (North America, European Union, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia/Pacific).
• The product must be available as a cloud IIoT platform and as a full on-premises deployment
• The vendor must offer, directly or through partnerships, professional services (installation, implementation and integration) and support services (help desk, product support and sustaining engineering) in at least two major geographies
• The vendor must be able to deliver and support, in a single bundled offering, the following capabilities across a distributed architecture:

1. Analytics

2. IoT edge device management

3. Integration tools and management

4. IoT data management

5. Application enablement and management

6. Security

If you are keen to read through the entire Gartner Report, download it from Hitachi's website.