COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE: ESPER AND RUNTIME

ESPER

Brand positioning

• Esper claims to be “re-imagining the future of app and device management for dedicated devices.”
• Customers are leveraging the platform to respond to interactive kiosks as a method of talking to brands that creates endless opportunities for organizations and to the deployment of kiosks across prominent business verticals.
• The company believes its solution is the best way to reposition a device to perform desired cumbersome actions on devices.
• Additionally, the company claims to be the most reliable platform used for app deployment and management on a dedicated device fleet.

Products and services

• Kiosk management solution: “Esper Manage provides the industry’s first full-stack solution for the Kiosk industry.”
• The Kiosk management solution helps clients to dynamically lockdown their kiosks and prominently improve operational efficiency and output while defending against all possible security threats.
• The solution is used in various sectors such as the retail, hospitality, transportation, banking, and healthcare sectors.
• Benefits of the solution include configuration of devices to function with android kiosk mode, remotely monitor and control kiosks, and personalize kiosks depending on the consumers’ needs.
• Kiosk retail solution: This retail solution is a cloud-based platform used in android devices that help retailers to build, manage, and deploy retail devices.
• Additionally, this solution has robust support for debugging and diagnosing devices.
• Some features of the retail device include automated and seamless deployment, remote control and debugging, lock devices.
• Furthermore, the retail device gives users complete control and set alerts for device issues.
• Benefits of the solution include remote control, device lock, and control, and the configuration and automation of deployment.

Competitive advantage

• Run application deployment at scale: Esper kiosk solutions help manage & deploy applications on android devices with the help of its fine-grained application policies with standard rules.
• Support cost reduction: Esper solution helps to debug and update device and app issues with OTA instantly.
• Field failure elimination: monitoring of applications for field failures and easily trigger alerts, thereby reducing device downtime while increasing performance.
• Continuous delivery: With Esper, customers are assured of round-the-clock deployment of applications and Android OS updates using automated scaling and rollbacks.

Funding

• Esper had raised a total of $2 million from a single seed funding round in 2018 from Andrew Lee and four other investors.

Traction

• Within the last year, the interactive kiosk market place had grown by 17.6% as reported by second Kiosk annual market census report.
• According to Similarweb review, the global ranking of the company website has risen to 1,646,819.
• Esper.io has 19,984 monthly visitors with the majority of visits emanating from India.

RUNTIME

Brand positioning

• Runtime claims to “provide cloud-based management of connected devices and is a complete solutions provider for the consumer, medical, commercial, and industrial IoT applications.”
• The Redwood City-based company claims to be “the world leader for connected critical infrastructure,” developing connected products and reducing managed connectivity cost.
• Its open-source runtime operating system (RTOS) is regarded as an industry-leading solution. 
• Runtime operating system operates on Apache Mynewt, which is the world’s leading open-source OS used in embedded devices.

Products and services

• Commercial support & Enterprise licenses: Runtime offers enterprise license together with commercial support, allowing product organization to associate with long-term secure management interfaces fully.
• Runtime Studios: Runtime Studios include firmware, hardware, and software designs built for the unique purpose of each industry.
• Some unique features of the studios include smart lighting, smart buildings, personal health, smart home, and asset tracking.
• Professional Device management platform: The platform supports an end-to-end operation and development, and security management of devices at scale.
• Key benefits of the platform include messaging, device management, build & package management, network management, and security.

Competitive advantage

• Edge services: runtime provides both software and hardware solutions to help clients accelerate product development.
• Runtime network: Runtime network supports multiple network transports, provides gateway software, and messaging infrastructure.
• Device Management: This helps manage devices through their full product life cycle. 
• Customer Application: Runtime’s APIs permits product companies to program their cloud application, mobile application, and gateway applications.
• Support & services: Runtime helps provides a range of implementation and support services. 

Funding

• Runtime has received a total of $7.5 million from two rounds of funding.

Traction

• Runtime Mynewt sensor monitor launched on August 11, 2017, and has over 100 downloads. 
• It is still in its first version with a 3+ rating. 
• Runtime Gateway Configurator launched on March 1, 2018, and has about 10+ reviews. 
• It is currently in its first version and has a 3+ rating. 

Research Strategy

EXPRESS LOGIC

• Express Logic claims to be the best-of-class embedded IoT development solution. The company offers multiple IoT solutions including, Thread X, FileX, GuiX, NetX, NetX Duo, and USBX™.
• Together with AR Systems, Express Logic delivers the best development solution for fast creation of cutting-edge, secure, and safe IoT devices. The solution features an IAR Embedded Workbench, which is accredited as the market leading "IDE (integrated development environment), compiler, debugger, static analysis, and run-time analysis development tool suite."
• THREADX is Express Logic’s flagship Industrial Grade Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) developed solely for completely embedded, real-time, and IoT applications.
• IAR Embedded Workbench claims to have over 62,000 developers globally. On the other hand, Express Logic's THREADX is deployed in over 6.2 billion devices globally. Together, the two solutions comprise the world's most popular solution in the embedded IoT industry.
• The combined solution features certified versions of a fully integrated compiler and debugger toolchain, and both comply with the highest safety integrity levels of IEC. Consequently, the comprehensive integration significantly reduces debug and integration effort to help developers build and deliver high-quality IoT products in less time.
• High-profile successful products such as HTC Wearables and Broadcom's WICED IoT chipset are all based on the IAR Systems and Express Logic. Equally, Renesas Electronics, a semiconductor manufacturing company has based its entire "Synergy processor portfolio" on IAR Embedded Workbench and Express Logic systems.

WIFROST

• WiFröst is a debugging interface for networked embedded systems developed by researchers from Stanford University’s Computer Science Department and UC Berkeley’s EECS Department.
• WiFröst is an IDE for debugging networked embedded systems. The tool collects information from IoT devices, its communication APIs, wireless router, and its backend servers, which it then displays in a web-based interface and shows the possible glitches the system faces.
• The WiFrost IDE grabs the debugging data and deploys a time-synchronized user interface to show the dynamic network patterns of an embedded system in real-time. Moreover, the solution continually checks for errors within the system, and if it identifies an error, it highlights the code line, relays feedback, and proposes fixes.
• According to Hackster.io with over 1.1 million hardware and software developers, the tool would completely close the gap between physical electronics and web applications, which will significantly change the development and debugging workflow of makers and professional developers.
• WiFröst is supported in part by NSF awards CNS 1505728 and IIS 1149799.
• Preliminary testing by interfacing with the Phillips Hue API from Arduino using WiFröst made effective use of the automatic checks for guidance and vizualization.
• According to Phillips, the auto-formatting logs is great and did the work for them. Besides, Phillips claims that the tool is not only useful in debugging, but also helpful in learning, and eliminates finding information manually.
• Unfortunately, the tool has not published any hard statistics regarding its adoption and usage, as it is still being improved to feature more sophisticated capabilities. Moreover, it is the first solution of its kind to use instrumentation in IoT firmware debugging.

ATTIFY INC.

• Established in 2013, Attify has grown to become a global leader in IoT, mobile, big data and infrastructure security. Its team comprises security experts in diverse fields including, "Reverse Engineering, Embedded Device security, Radio reversing, Web application pentesting and infrastructure security."
• Attify Inc. claims to help businesses secure their IoT devices, digital assets, and mobile applications. The company claims to be a leading global security provider of unique security assessment, penetration testing and training to organizations around the globe.
• Attify Inc. prides in its latest cutting edge technology, Attify Badge, a tool it uses to perform hardware exploitation and hacking of IoT devices. Attify Badge performs "UART sniffing, root over serial, Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) debugging, dumping memory and so on.
• Attify Badge allows businesses to exploit IoT devices, specifically hacking/debugging IoT firmware. The company is famed for creating world leading IoT courses such as "Offensive Internet of Things (IoT) Exploitation and Advanced Android and iOS Hands-on Exploitation"
• Attify Inc. has presented its research at numerous conferences such as BlackHat (U.S., Asia, EU, and AbuDhabi) Defcon, OWASP AppSec USA, AppSec APAC, Nullcon, Toorcon, ClubHack, phDays, Syscan, etc.
• Attify Badge is widely mentioned across different resources o the web like Hackaday.io, among other IoT related websites. In 2018, Attify Inc. claims to have conducted 100+ penetration testing engagements. It also elicited positive reactions among the attendees from leading global companies, including AG, and from employees of tech giants such as HP, and many other companies.
• Just like WiFröst, Attify Inc. has not yet published any information showing its traction globally; however, based on its high selling course, "Offensive IoT Exploitation," which attracts listeners and buyers from all corners of the globe, the company's solution is a powerful tool for IoT firmware debugging.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

PLATFORMIO

• Platformio is an "advanced and extremely versatile ecosystem" for IoT (internet of things) development. It features an IDE (integrated development environment) build system, unified debugger, and library manager.
• The platform supports over 31 platforms, 18 frameworks, 693 boards, 6,693 libraries, and 179 examples of embedded and desktop development platforms and frameworks.
• Platformio is a cross-platform utility for quick, professional development. It features built-in advanced serial port monitor, C/C++ intelligent code completion, and smart code linter.
• To expedite time to delivering IoT applications, Platformio integrates with other popular IDEs and continuous integration systems.

• Platformio offers the PIO Unified Debugger, which supports multiple architectures and development platforms to allow users to debug over 200 embedded boards with zero-Configuration. Consequently, it also offers a multi-board and multi-architecture programming experience.
• PIO Plus Unified Debugger automatically pre-configures the complex UI (user interface) windows before a debugging session via its advanced configuration database "per each board and debugging probe."
•  PIO Unified Debugger top features include a one-click solution (zero configuration); support for over 300 embedded boards; multiple architectures and development platforms; and support for Windows, MacOS, & Linux.
• The debugger is also built-in into "Platformio IDE for Atom and Platformio IDE for VSCode," and integrates with Eclipse and Sublime Text.

• Platformio receives an estimated 556,293 visitors monthly. Its monthly visits growth is approximately 20.69%.
• As of April 2017, Platformio supported approximately 370 different boards, but the number has grown to over 693 boards as of September 2019.
• Currently, Platformio is the preferred platform for 25 global professional development environments, including but not limited to Atmel, Nordic Semiconductor, Intel, Aceinna, SiFive, and Arduino.
• In a recent report, the company's CEO Ivan Kravets noted that partnering with SiFive and Western Digital will enable Platformio to further and expand its ecosystem.

BARBARA IOT

• Barbara IoT is a software maker working to make the IoT easy, safe, and secure. Its solution checks the health of IoT deployments and can report and automatically fix device glitches.
• Barbara IoT solution is designed to secure technology for IoT product lifecycle management. It provides support and maintenance on the solution, eliminating worries about security patches or support for new hardware.

• Barbara Panel customers, one of the solution's primary feature, provides a safe way to perform "Over The Air" updates and application debugging, patching securely and efficiently the firmware. It also supports the self-provisioning of certificates and data to facilitate secure deployments.
•  Remote control of deployments is another main feature Barbara IoT offers its customers.
• Another major capability is full lifecycle control, including configuration changes and secure provisioning and de-provisioning of IoT devices.

• Barbara IoT receives about 714 visitors monthly.
• The company has raised a total of €71.4K in funding over 1 round. The funds were a grant round raised in June 2018.
• According to Zoominfo, Barbara IoT has an estimated $4.6 million.

AIKAAN LABS

• AiKaan provides IoT solutions such as monitoring, controlling, provisioning, and debugging of large scale IoT Edge & Fog deployments. The same message is repeated by a Twitter post by the company.
• The company claims to have built a software controller (AiCon) for smart technologies such as smart cities, smart parking, industrial IoT, and smart vehicles.
•  Some top clients of Aikaan Labs include MultiTech, Avenchi, Cascademic Solutions, Elcita, Classklap, TagsTec, iWave, among others.

• AiCon continually monitors the health of the IoT system and network to deliver a full review of the health of your IoT infrastructure. The solution simplifies monitoring, debugging, provisioning, and controlling IoT systems.
• AiCon is powered through proactive monitoring algorithms that can identify and learn the operating conditions of IoT systems and notifies glitches/anomalies.
• The solution's top features include topology discovery, health monitoring of the Edge infrastructure, anomaly detection, SLA Violations., and application orchestration (focused on business applications).
• AiCon's machine-assisted troubleshooting and debugging solution helps businesses to identify and fix the problems in their IoT infrastructure. The software controller helps users to perform complex CLI based debugging on IoT systems gateways, servers, and other devices in the network.

• Aikaan Labs receives approximately 3,037 visits every month.
• In a recent interview with Aikaan Labs CEO, Chetan Kumar, it was noted that the company expects revenue to increase by 150% to 170% in the next 2-3 years. The revenue growth will almost be IoT-related.

RESEARCH STRATEGY