IOT.NXT
WELCOMING A DIGITAL FUTURE Executives at IoT.nxt discuss the transformation of technology and its rise to prominence in the African industry and beyond Writer: Phoebe Harper | Project Manager: Lewis Bush
In Africa, technology is the single most exciting industry to be in at the moment.” For Shane Cooper, Acting CEO of IoT.nxt, his feelings are clear. Cooper’s company is a global Internet of Things (IoT) firm offering dynamic software and hardware IoT solutions. In 2020, IoT.nxt partnered with Vodafone Business, further strengthening its position and reach in the global IoT market. The company has offices in four locations – South Africa, the UK, USA and The Netherlands – and a total of 320 employees. Today, the organisation has clients in diverse industries across all territories where it operates and with partners in other countries. 2 | Africa Outlook issue 92
TECHNOLOGY
Africa Outlook issue 92 | 3
IOT.NXT Between 2015 and 2020, African tech start-ups were receiving funding backing at rates faster (circa 45 percent) than the global average (approximately eight percent). Cooper acknowledges the birth of start-ups in Africa and how technology has acted as a great enabler to help get these businesses off the ground. “Technology has also historically played a significant role in driving the upliftment of the continent’s people, by ensuring a means of enjoying economic participation,” adds Cooper. “Many of the successful start-ups (now unicorns) were born of the adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’; and given Africa’s relatively underbanked societies, the need to innovate in financial services was obvious.” However, while not all start-ups are successful, technology has allowed for innovation to thrive and for real democratisation of problem solving. “There is an interesting combination of attributes driving this innovation wave, underpinned by technology: rapid expansion of 4G with mobile first innovation, access to learning, knowledge, and collaboration, coupled with the real need to drive innovation at a basic human level, and solving for challenges in essential goods and services,” discusses Cooper. “Disruption in this space is fuelling growth in technology adoption and bodes well for the future.”
4 | Africa Outlook issue 92
MICRO-RAPTOR™ Micro-Raptor is a small, cost-effective hardware device (designed in-house) which is paired with the company’s own proprietary firmware. Micro-Raptor is often integrated with a specific device to make that device smart, more secure, and enable it to communicate with the rest of the Commander ecosystem. RAPTOR™ IoT.nxt’s edge Raptor is a software product that is deployed on gateway devices. Gateway devices are primarily a hardware device that runs some specific operating system. The gateway requires Raptor to enable it to read and write from and to devices that are physically connected to it. Raptor can integrate with a wide range of physical devices and supports several communication protocols. Raptor contains a unique patented technology, called SDDI (Software Defined Device Interface), which allows it to change how physical ports are used to enhance flexibility when connecting devices. This flexibility makes it possible to connect one Raptor to many devices at the same time, often through purpose build port extenders to allow more physical connections to be added. VIRTUAL RAPTOR™ Virtual Raptor™ (V-Raptor™) is a super scalable software application that acts as a gateway for any type of non-wired IoT device. It also acts as a hub for all Micro-Raptors and Raptors, i.e., they are connected to V-Raptor, which in turn is connected to Commander. V-Raptor is designed to allow for easy integration of large numbers of devices and gateways in a secure manner. This can be done by using a variety of simple communication interfaces such as HTTPs or MQTT, or by developing and deploying vendor specific device drivers (in the form of microservices) that serve as communication interfaces using network-based protocols. V-Raptor™ enables IoT devices to be deployed, configured, and monitored at scale, acting as a load-balancer, and extra security layer for edge devices while handling distribution of various components like drivers, protocols, firmware, and security patches. V-Raptor™ also provides auto-scaling, is easily deployable, maintainable, and provides automatic failover support when deployed on supported hardware clusters.
Complementing the production of Africa Outlook, APAC Outlook, EME Outlook and North America Outlook magazines, Outlook Publishing’s awardwinning in-house team is now utilising these same
Outlook Creative Services
specialist production skills to offer a full and bespoke range of editorial, design and marketing services via its new Outlook Creative Services division. For more information on how we can work with you in providing a plethora of completely flexible and customisable production services, please visit: www.outlookpublishing.com/creative-services
DESIGN:
E D I TO R I A L :
Stephen Giles +44 (0) 1603 363 634 steve.giles@outlookpublishing.com
Phoebe Harper +44 (0) 1603 363 655 phoebe.harper@outlookpublishing.com
Devon Collins +44 (0) 1603 363 656 devon.collins@outlookpublishing.com
Marcus Kääpä +44 (0) 1603 363 653 marcus.kaapa@outlookpublishing.com
IOT.NXT Bertus Jacobs, co-founder, has been the Chief Technology Officer at the organisation since November 2015 and he believes that his company’s agility to move quickly is what truly differentiates IoT.nxt. “Most of it is so cutting-edge that no one has heard of it,” explains Jacobs. “In 2015, we patented our RaptorTM technology, which is a device (Edge Gateway) that can connect to virtually all sensors, devices and third party (non- IoT) systems. We also went ahead and created one of the most robust and flexible cloud-based platforms. Currently, our Raptors and platform are ingesting data from thousands of locations and tens of millions of endpoints (sensor values). We have a brilliant visualisation component, which is totally browser or mobile based. Not
to mention our internal AI team which produce mind-bending stuff.”
FRAMEWORK In a bid to make the efficiencies, cost savings and increased revenue from IoT a reality for businesses, IoT.nxt has developed a renowned framework that is technology agnostic and can overcome the challenge of creating a fully interconnected, interoperable value chain. The company operates a range of technology platforms such as Raptor, V-Raptor and Micro Raptor, and these platforms work well together and interlink. “Each Raptor in the range has a specific function, but the main aim is to integrate with as many devices as possible and to enable bi-directional communication between devices and the rest of the Commander
CELFOCUS Celfocus takes Customers’ IoT journey to new heights As a Technology company, Celfocus accelerates Product & Service innovation, by promoting innovative digital capabilities and delivering business value in the most complex, mission-critical challenges. As Digital enables large-scale innovation and disruption -in a context of increasing data complexity and growth –the main offers are centred on three pillars: Digital Transformation, Cognitive and Network Automation, focusing on business efficiency and customer experience. With 10-year experience in IoT, Celfocus helps Customers to deliver IoT solutions that enable them to keep an edge over their competition by integrating IoT products and IoT-enabled services with legacy systems, handle IoT complexity and scale while extending IoT Solutions through continuous improvement and delivering scaled and secured IoT products. Celfocus’s Agile delivery methodology is aligned with the industry best practices, tailored to reduce risk and enabling a faster time to market. With this, clients have access to a solid vision of what adds value and what does not, based on customer-centric architecture, data-driven approach and evolving reusable components that combine our own and other vendor’s technologies. Celfocus was founded in 2000 and has a strong track record delivering Digital Transformation projects for tier-one clients, in sophisticated sectors like Telecommunications and Financial Services. Celfocus holds an extensive footprint in projects across +40 clients worldwide, including Vodafone, STC, Safaricom, Santander, AXA, BNP, Generali, among many others in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
www.celfocus.com
6 | Africa Outlook issue 92
IOT.NXT ecosystem,” discusses André Jacobs, Chief of Product Engineering.
INSIDE THE IOT.NXT PLATFORM Commander is part of the IoT.nxt application suite that creates collaboration centres delivering through a single user interface that visualises and controls the entire ecosystem of things and people. Upon releasing its first version of Commander over three years ago, André Jacobs believes that the focus was to enable people that were not Software Engineers to build IoT solutions. “Commander provided a major shift in the company’s trajectory, enabling Software Engineers to focus on building out the platform, and industry specialist to build the solutions,” Jacobs tells us. “This focus has helped us transform the way we do business and is similarly transforming the way our
8 | Africa Outlook issue 92
partners and customers are building IoT solutions. “We are currently in a good position where the platform is feature rich and our focus going forward is to improve on the existing components and to introduce our fourth-generation technology. With this new technology we are shifting our focus again to provide partners with the ability to quickly and repeatably build their own IoT products that they can sell to their customers. In addition, we plan to make this same technology available to the software and hardware developer community to build components and solutions that can be sold through our channel partners.”
THE FUTURE IS DIGITAL In today’s world, IoT is an integral part of the digital future. Indeed, the extent of many companies’ digital
transformation strategies were tested during the COVID-19 pandemic when operations almost completely transitioned to being online only. “Imagine a lockdown a few decades ago with limited communication or technology at our disposal,” explains Francois Volschenk, Head of Higher Learning. “With the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, people had to stay at home with communication and interaction limited to mostly digital mediums. Technology companies that delivered on the needs of people during lockdown grew exponentially, with good examples in video conferencing. In the digital era, the influence of digital organisations increased with the adoption of continuously developing technology, with technology an all-pervasive and dominant part of our lives.” Traditionally digital influence was
TECHNOLOGY
IoTdc is a connected device company with a laser focus on providing customers with fit for purpose devices, integration, and connectivity for rapid deployment anywhere in the world. Operational since March 2019, we have sold over 100,000 devices into the South African channel and abroad. Any device we sell has the option to come pre-integrated with NOA Data Service. NOA Data Services is an integrated device ecosystem designed for rapid site-ready deployment reducing your integration timeline from months to minutes. Our mission is to provide technology integrators and resellers with a single-window distribution platform to quickly, reliably, and seamlessly access quality-verified connected devices and integration services.
+27 11 568 7151
sales@iotdisti.com
Putting people at the center of technology
Your partner through change Through a culture of continuous innovation and commitment, we partner to bring about change that suits your every need. At the core of building sustainable solutions is the empowerment of you, the client, teams and individuals to ensure success.
iotdc.online
People Technology Processes Integrated
WHAT WE DO Enterprise Solutions Innovation Solutions ICT Professional Services IT Infrastructure
www.ptpi.co.za
Africa Outlook issue 92 | 9
IOT.NXT
Head office, South Africa
10 | Africa Outlook issue 92
TECHNOLOGY
INTELLITECH DISTRIBUTORS (PTY) LTD
Your Intelligent Fleet Partner Intellitech Distributors have been supplying the Fleet and IoT industries’ major role players with reliable solutions, backed by more than ten years’ experience. Intellitech Distributors is Teltonika’s biggest distributor in South Africa and Africa. We also distribute products from Escort, ELA Innovation and Pilot. We provide reliable and professional advice and support for hardware, peripherals and software platforms. We are a proud partner and supplier to IoT.nxt.
Intellitech-Distributors (PTY) LTD 113 Duvernoystreet Constantiapark, Pretoria, 0181 +27 794906800 Support:+27 840986542/ 0677628102 jacques@intellitechdistributors.co.za www.intellitechdistributors.co.za
generally more profound in organisations, with less influence in society. However, as workplaces changed, the influence on people at home and in society increased. “People travel significantly less,” adds Volschenk. “People’s limited movement and interaction require new ways of acquiring data more effectively – this is where IoT technology can assist.” Over the past 10 years, digitalisation has progressed rapidly with the growth and availability of the internet and related technologies, creating the required infrastructure for the Internet of Things. IoT technology gathers data from a plethora of devices. “The information from the IoT devices assists with better insights to reduce costs, improve efficiencies or create opportunities for a better world,” discusses Volschenk. “With the availability of almost unlimited data at our fingertips, IoT will be king when used to solve problems, create opportunities, address latent needs,
and more broadly, potentially assist with social requirements.” Given the exponential rise in technology and societal advancements achieved over the last decade, predicting the future isn’t an easy task. However, it is Cooper’s belief that connectivity will become increasingly cheaper, faster, and ubiquitous allowing for a better world to be realised. “We have seen an increase in the divide between those who have, and those who don’t; so, a point should be raised about how technology is going to drive improvements in society as a whole,” explains Cooper. “AI will be everywhere. 3D printing will be mainstream, and pervasive. Green energy will dominate. Autonomous vehicles will consist of around 20-30 percent of global vehicles. “Technology will drive medical innovations to solve a multitude of diseases. The world’s population will be around 8.5 billion, with India being the most populous country in
the world. There will be well over 110 billion IoT connected devices. Global economy will be driven by non-western consumers. Technology innovating technology will be mainstream. Dairy and meat products will be mostly lab made. Digital twins will track our health. There will be airports for drones and flying taxis. Genome editing will be a reality. Quantum computing will be the standard. “As a technologist, I find the future undoubtedly exciting. One can only hope that this convergence of new developments is enhanced by an increased sense of humanity, to build a better world.”
Tel: +27 12 880 0114 (Head Office) solutions@iotnxt.com www.iotnxt.com
Africa Outlook issue 92 | 11
IOT.NXT South Africa Bylsbridge Office Park Building 14, Alexandra Road, Centurion, South Africa Tel: +27 12 880 0114 (Head Office) solutions@iotnxt.com USA 7700 Windrose Avenue, Plano, Texas, USA The Netherlands Zuid Hollandlaan 7, The Hague, The Netherlands www.iotnxt.com
PRODUCED BY AFRICA OUTLOOK MAGAZINE