In this article, Paul Bearpark, Head of Electronics & Software at 42T and Kuffire Ebong, one of 42T’s consultants, explore how companies can rapidly develop reliable, secure, and scalable IoT products, amidst the increasing market pressure for speed and efficiency. It breaks down three main approaches to IoT development and provides insights into their trade-offs.
In today’s fast-paced world, the pressure to launch connected products quickly is higher than ever. Market demands, competitive pressures, and customer expectations leave no room for sluggish development cycles. The challenge is delivering reliable, secure, and scalable IoT products without unnecessary delays.
Just as a chef carefully selects ingredients for a gourmet meal, designing a connected device requires careful balancing of development speed, security, and cost efficiency. The right approach is crucial: should companies build from scratch, use integrated platforms or specialised modules? The answer depends on a company’s priorities and resources, as well as the market it intends to serve.
Choosing the Right Development Path
Companies currently have three fundamental approaches available to them when selecting the right mix of components, ensuring securing, and balancing customisation with efficiency: designing everything in-house, adopting an integrated IoT platform, or using cloud-provider modules for a hybrid solution.
DIY approach
The first approach, a fully custom or DIY solution, offers total control over hardware, firmware, and cloud infrastructure. This allows companies to fine-tune every aspect of their product, ensuring maximum performance, security, and flexibility. However, this path requires significant engineering resources and expertise, and the time-to-market is considerably longer.
For companies that demand complete control over their product architecture, the DIY approach provides unmatched flexibility. This method allows for custom hardware selection, bespoke firmware design, and tailor-made cloud services. Security can be implemented at every level, from secure boot processes, sophisticated encryption protocols and certificate management, ensuring the highest level of protection for connected devices.
However, developing an IoT solution from scratch requires deep expertise in multiple domains, including embedded systems and device provisioning. Device management must also be considered, along with over-the-air (OTA) updates and regulatory compliance.
Integrated IoT platforms
The second option, integrated IoT platforms, accelerates development by bundling pre-certified hardware, connectivity, and cloud services into a single package. This approach eliminates many of the technical challenges associated with connectivity and security, allowing teams to focus on application development rather than infrastructure management. The trade-off is vendor dependency, as companies must commit to a platform’s ecosystem and pricing structure.
For businesses prioritising speed, integrated IoT platforms offer a streamlined development path. These platforms bundle essential IoT components such as hardware, connectivity, and cloud infrastructure into a pre-configured package significantly reducing development time and complexity – it’s an attractive option for businesses with limited engineering resources.
One example is Blues, whose Notecard and Notehub ecosystem provides a secure, low-power module that seamlessly connects devices to cloud services by cellular, Wi-Fi, satellite or LoRa. With pre-configured security features, fleet management tools, and built-in OTA update capabilities, companies using these solutions can bypass many of the hurdles associated with traditional IoT development.
Cloud-provider modules
Finally, the hybrid approach involves using specialised modules from cloud providers such as AWS IoT ExpressLink or u-blox cellular solutions. These modules provide a streamlined connection to cloud services while still allowing some degree of customisation. Although this solution simplifies cloud integration, it can lead to partial vendor lock-in and may require additional configuration to ensure compatibility with legacy systems or third-party services.
For those seeking a balance between flexibility and ease of development, cloud-provider modules offer an appealing compromise. Solutions like AWS IoT ExpressLink integrate seamlessly with cloud services, enabling rapid deployment while still allowing some degree of customisation. These modules come with built-in security and provisioning mechanisms, streamlining the process of connecting devices to the cloud.
This approach works well for companies that are already invested in a specific cloud ecosystem. By leveraging cloud-provider modules, businesses can reduce the complexity of secure connectivity while maintaining flexibility in hardware selection. However, the reliance on feature enhancements postdeployment. Similarly, regulatory compliance must be factored into the development process, as different markets require adherence to various regulatory regimes such as FCC or CE certification.
Read the full article
As published in:
- New Electronics magazine (June issue 2025) click to read in full.