Xively, the platform for connected devices created by LogMeIn, is creating a partner program and has brought in Electric Imp and TierConnect as the first participants. Xively also has a previous partnership with ARM (armh). This gives Xively’s cloud more compatible hardware that should presumably “just work” — able to upload data seamlessly from the qualified hardware into Xively’s cloud.
Electric Imp makes boards and modules that have connectivity and logic to ship that data to a cloud built into the hardware so all someone needs to do to connect a device is add the Imp. Electric Imp’s CEO Hugo Fiennes told me that Electric Imp will still offer its own cloud services that provide provisioning, security, firmware updates, business logic and more. He described the Xively cloud partnership as something that gives customers a URL they can send data to on the device side.
He wrote: “We deal heavily in devices, they deal more in data.” And both are necessary for a true connected experience. the other new partner TierConnect offers supply chain management software. IT could now build hooks into Xively’s cloud to help companies track connected products from warehouse
to factory floor.
Based on this it looks like Xively understands that the value in connecting devices is more than the sum of their individual data, but in sharing that data as widely as possible. I’m intrigued by the company’s vision and hope to hear more about it when LogMeIn Chairman and CEO Michael Simon speaks next week at Structure:Europe.
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