6 IoT SaaS platform providers help streamline adoption
IoT SaaS providers help simplify the complexity and expense of deploying IoT by offering platforms with features such as scalability, real-time data capture and machine learning.
IoT devices are everywhere -- from manufacturing to healthcare to wearables. Organizations use equipment or vehicles with IoT sensors to collect data and automate back-end processes to improve customer experiences and create new business models. But deploying these connected devices to get value from the data can be challenging. Providers are helping companies address this challenge with IoT SaaS platforms.
For several years, IoT has been a competitive edge for the enterprise. When done well, organizations can gather invaluable data to improve efficiency and forecast the future. However, they must make it past difficulties in the adoption phase, also called pilot purgatory. IoT deployments require infrastructure that's different from the enterprise norm, even the cloud. Hardware and security standards in IoT devices haven't yet settled, and the problem of processing data close to the IoT devices, rather than in the company cloud, all add to the complexity and expense of deploying IoT.
A growing number of IoT SaaS providers offer platforms that service IoT architecture and processing needs directly, eliminating the need for deep investments in gateways, edge servers, fog nodes and other IoT-specific components.
One challenge in choosing among the IoT SaaS providers is that, while many have similar features -- including scalability, real-time data capture and machine learning -- they have wildly different pricing models, making it an important purchasing consideration. Before investing in an IoT SaaS platform, it's important to determine the number of devices the organization will be using, data volume and whether the organization will be using the provider's analytics.
Before investing in an IoT SaaS platform, it's important to determine the number of devices the organization will be using, data volume and whether the organization will be using the provider's analytics.
To help simplify the process of selecting an IoT SaaS platform, we examine six prominent providers. They are listed in alphabetical order and were selected based on internet research and popular use.
IRI Voracity
Innovative Routines International (IRI) Voracity is a data manipulation engine that can rapidly aggregate data in edge environments. It has strong analytics capabilities and can run on a wide range of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix and even Raspberry Pi.
Its key features include fast, big data-friendly extract, transform and load; centralized administration; and a data governance portal that can search across silos. It also has strong encryption and anonymization utility, and can integrate log data across many sources. Its embedded analytics functionality is big data-centric.
Pricing varies considerably, depending on components used, and starts in the low five figures.
Microsoft Azure IoT Hub
The Azure cloud environment is one of the most mature and intricate in the market. Its IoT SaaS platform provides built-in analytics, machine learning and a facility for handling structured and unstructured data in the same context. Administrators can enable app and workflow deployment using preexisting Azure resources, providing highly customized applications. The platform can integrate easily with other platforms, including many CRM and ERP systems, as it inherits all the connectivity of the Azure cloud environment itself. There's also a REST API for custom integrations.
This combination of features makes possible a broad spectrum of potential applications, from smart buildings and cities to advanced industrial robotic process automation to widescale predictive maintenance. The platform is designed for beginners, as well as experts.
Microsoft offers a four-tier pricing program based on inbound data volume. The free tier allows up to 8,000 messages per unit, per day.
Oracle IoT Cloud Service
Oracle IoT Cloud Service provides a set of preconfigured, application-specific IoT SaaS offerings, building on its modular cloud architecture. Each of Oracle's IoT cloud services focuses on a particular IoT application domain:
Production Monitoring Cloud Service tracks equipment performance and predicts machine failures, enabling preventive maintenance.
Asset Monitoring Cloud Service facilitates real-time visibility and predictive intervention automatically.
Fleet Monitoring Cloud Service offers vehicle location in real time, geographic tracking and cost audit. It can also monitor drive actions and behaviors.
Connected Worker Cloud Service tracks worker movement and environmental monitoring to improve safety conditions.
Service Monitoring for Connected Assets offers service channel monitoring with root cause diagnosis, which is useful for tracking and locating assets, and theft prevention.
Pricing is calculated per device using a pay-as-you-go model based on resource consumption. There are no upfront commitments or service subscriptions, and there's no minimum service period.
IoT SaaS providers offer platforms that service IoT architecture and processing needs.
Particle
Particle's IoT platform includes three products -- Wi-Fi, Cellular and Tracker -- for connectivity. Its software includes an OS, cloud-based management and a rules engine for IoT message management, as well as an SDK. The primary strength of the platform is that it requires no expertise to implement and is supported by an extensive IoT expert support team, as well as a strong user community.
Its API integration uses REST, and it can work with data from Google or Microsoft clouds. IoT devices can be monitored in real time -- useful for vehicle tracking and environmental monitoring -- and their analytics for predictive maintenance are strong.
Cost is by blocks of service and ranges from free to $299 and $599 per month, per block. One block includes 720,000 data operations per month and support for 100 additional devices. Data operations are user-initiated activities, such as sending, receiving or storing data.
Salesforce IoT Cloud
Salesforce IoT Cloud features high scalability, in keeping with its overall cloud architecture. Its interfaces offer rapid connectivity to a wide range of ERP, CRM and database platforms. The application development tools available in the general Salesforce cloud platform can be used for IoT development, and many users can implement new IoT applications without having to code.
Salesforce IoT Cloud's REST API enables data to be imported from any source. It accepts streaming data, and users can create profiles of IoT devices in applications to contextualize the data, using Salesforce's CRM resources. The platform works with a broad range of data formats.
Contact Salesforce for pricing information.
ThingWorx
Focused on Industrial IoT, ThingWorx is ideal for hybrid on-premises/off-premises environments. It's flexible and can be deployed rapidly with minimal customization. It is ideal for remote device monitoring in complex, hybrid deployments and has strong utility for maintaining remote devices. In this hybrid mix, data can also be easily accessed from on-premises servers and cloud applications, making it ideal not only for industrial applications but complex service environments.
Its smooth integration of devices across environments and geography enables high system visibility and control, strong compliance and asset optimization. Uptime is preserved, and costs are more easily managed.
Contact ThingWorx for pricing.
Editor's note:This article was updated in June 2025 to update product information and to improve the reader experience.
Scott Robinson is an enterprise data architect at New Era Technology, a global digital transformation firm. He is an IT veteran with more than 25 years of experience, a social scientist and the author of Modern Data-Centric Architecture.
