With the Internet of Things (IoT) market growing at a dizzying rate, companies require secure, scalable and flexible platforms to maximize the opportunity from connected technology.
Enter the Afero Platform, which aims to help firms take advantage of the exploding potential of IoT. The platform’s key strengths are its low price and its reliable and secure ecosystem of software, hardware, and cloud services that enables businesses to build better IoT products and applications.
Now the firm is launching a new addition to its platform geared towards the developer community. The Afero Developer Hub provides support for an inexpensive local, standalone hub.
As a result of developer feedback, the new standalone hub was developed for those companies that are moving beyond the initial proof-of-concept phase of development with the platform and on to implementation.
The Developer Hub provides Afero Hub functionality on inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware. The Afero Hub Software is available at the no cost and its preferred Raspberry Pi 3 platform is inexpensive, popular and plentiful. This allows any project to be accessible remotely from anywhere in the world.
Prior to the introduction of the Afero Developer Hub, connections between IoT devices and cloud were made through the mobile app or the Afero Secure Hub, a standalone wireless gateway with a cellular connection to the internet.
However, not every project requires the power of the Afero Secure Hub, and mobile phone connections are not ideal for situations where constant connectivity is needed between a device and the cloud. So Afero took the next step in IoT development and made the platform even more flexible through the Afero Developer Hub.
ASR-1 is at the core
At the core of the Afero Platform is the tiny ASR-1 module. This module allows devices to communicate securely with the globally-distributed Afero Cloud which provides extensive product control and analytics.
With the new developer hub, businesses now can create a hub that connects ASR-1 equipped devices to the cloud using the Afero Hub Software package and any ARM-based computer running Debian Linux.
This provides a particular advantage for companies utilizing Raspberry Pi computers, which pack power and flexibility at a low cost.
The ubiquity of the Raspberry Pi platform makes the Developer Hub easy and cost-effective to implement and requires little development effort to deploy.
The “learning curve” required to install the software consists of basic Linux administration skills that most developers already know.
The new developer hub provides always available communication between ASR-1 devices and a remotely roaming mobile app. Multiple hubs can be used, allowing projects to seamlessly roam between them.
As well, new IoT projects that are launched on the Afero Platform will benefit from the Afero Developer Hub’s ability to facilitate prototyping of connected products.
The hub’s software is capable of creating a low-cost connection base with edge devices in scenarios where devices are scattered and connectivity is scarce.
And now with the Afero Developer Hub, companies will face fewer obstacles when moving from proof of concept into implementation, so that more visionary IoT innovations will be brought to life.
This article was produced in partnership with Afero.
