The Configured Things approach

We use policies across the connected place to bound all changes and allow the various users to make requests of the system – their (competing) requests in turn are prioritised and turned into a set of audited actions by the platform.

The controlled sharing of IoT sensors, actuators and data enable parties to leverage one another’s investments and gain a common view – reducing the need to deploy replicated capital expense. However, such sharing must occur under well-defined and understood policy.

The process

  • Our technologies provide key capabilities required for organisations seeking to grow business through increased automation and real-time visibility.
  • Our approach centres around the configuration management of Things via declarative system models.
  • With a high degree of confidence in the properties of the system created and thus its security, organisations are more likely to achieve the digital transformation they seek to achieve.
Model

Model

Building systems from models rather than APIs allows for a stronger definition of state, its inspection and ability to be shared.

Co-operate

Co-operate

Models that can be shared, can be modified, with their changes validated against agreed policy.

Configure

Configure

Validated configuration descriptions can be executed and the systems they describe, deployed.

React

React

As new demands are presented to the model as “deltas” from its existing state, minimal system reconfigurations can be validated and implemented.

Recover

Recover

People and Systems can be unpredictable – the principle of soft-state recovery allows the described system to regenerate in the event of abnormality.

Our silo breaking approach

Co-operation through federation

  • Federation is the need to work across administrative boundaries within an overall framework. This work may involve control of the devices, including configuration and management, as well as access to data and information. In most large-scale deployments of things, even within a single enterprise, there will be aspects which involve federation.
  • For example, control of network devices may be under the control of a different organisation than that for building management, and although there may be times to link their management, they also need to operate in isolation and have independent failure modes. In smart cities or event management, federation is inherent in the construction of a solution.
  • Systems belong to vastly different organisations that need to collaborate – for example transport agencies, emergency services, local business and individual citizens. Each will have data that others may need to access, but with strict controls depending on the accessing organisation. Limited control of the systems might be ceded to another organisation, perhaps for a fixed period during an emergency situation.
  • These complex relationships make federation a complex issue and without the required underlying capabilities being included within the underlying platform it becomes an almost impossible task. Its importance ensures that federation is at the core of the conception of Configured Things.

Data Security

Sharing of raw and derived information is key and this has important security and privacy implications. Systems need to adapt to who is within the space and can access the data, in what context, they could be in a secure room or could be out in the field, and also the type of the device and whether it can be trusted (for example whether it is encrypted)