CRN’s 2024 IoT Innovators: Connecting Things To Solve Real Problems
These solution providers offer a wide range of IoT solutions for a variety of industries, whether those are meant to enable computer vision applications for detecting objects on railways, predictive maintenance capabilities for appliances in retail stores, or real-time monitoring and detection for cyberattacks against industrial assets.
When it comes to Paul Galeski’s view of the opportunities he sees in the industrial IoT space, it doesn’t start with the technology. Instead, it starts with the people and the processes within a manufacturer and where the business is running into products.
“That’s an afterthought: which technology to use. What's the real essence of the operation, and where are the bottlenecks? Where are the challenges? Those are the things you address first and thoroughly in conjunction with your client,” he told CRN last week.
Galeski is the new CEO of GrayMatter, a Warrendale, Pa.-based industrial IoT solution provider that is one of the companies named to CRN’s IoT Innovators list this year, and he believes that pressing issues like an aging workforce within the manufacturing industry have created an opening for his company to hit those issues head on while helping customers take their operations to the next level.
It’s about “trying to create the next generation of solutions business to where we really take this plant floor data and turn that into real-time industrial knowledge in the right place at the right time in the right hands, so that people can use that operationally, in context, in real time, to run their businesses better,” he said.
Galeski’s perspective—which is informed by his 30-plus-year career in industrial automation, including four years as an executive at Rockwell Automation—is representative of the grounded, optimistic approach taken by top solution provider leaders when it comes to pursuing a wide range of opportunities in the IoT space.
“We are really looking at driving a new paradigm in industrial automation solutions in IoT,” said Galeski, who took over as GrayMatter’s CEO earlier this year from co-founder Jim Gillespie, now serving in the new role as chief growth officer.
What follows are the 22 value-added resellers, systems integrators and managed services providers recognized in CRN’s 2024 IoT Innovators. With headquarters ranging from Chicago and Michigan to Arizona and Japan, these companies offer a wide range of IoT solutions for a variety of industries, whether those are meant to enable computer vision for detecting objects on railways, predictive maintenance capabilities for appliances in retail stores, or real-time monitoring and detection for cyberattacks against industrial assets.
AHEAD
Top Executive: Dan Adamany, CEO
AHEAD is helping enterprises build and implement custom IoT solutions using its expertise in networking and manufacturing edge compute devices. The Chicago, Ill.-based company works with more than 200 vendors, including Dell Technologies, Advantech and Zededa, to deliver industry-specific solutions. For example, AHEAD developed an automated computer vision solution for a railway management organization that can identify objects on the track and notify train conductors in real time.
Alvarez Technology Group
Top Executive: Luis Alvarez, President & CEO
Alvarez Technology Group develops and implements integrated IoT solutions that range from video surveillance to thermal imaging. The Salinas, Calif.-based solution provider provides an AI-powered video surveillance solution using technology from Deep Sentinel that can provide a fully managed physical security while saving the customer more than 80 percent in costs over in-house security staff. The company also recently launched a new AI practice that includes computer vision solutions.
CBT
Top Executive: Kelly Ireland, Founder, CEO and CTO
CBT is helping businesses reduce costs and increase safety, reliability and efficiency with IoT solutions that collect, analyze and visualize industrial data. The Orange, Calif.-based company’s offerings include connected workforce solutions that equip workers with wearable devices for access to real-time data as well as video intelligence solutions that can monitor facilities, detect incidents and track the safety of workers.
CDW
Top Executive: Christine Leahy, Chair and CEO
CDW is making digital transformation achievable for businesses with IoT solutions that help them become more efficient and profitable while opening new growth opportunities. The Vernon Hills, Ill.-based solution provider offers IoT solutions across a variety of verticals, including retail, manufacturing, energy and health care. In education, CDW provides IoT solutions that combine video surveillance, smart sensors, real-time analytics and automated emergency to keep students safe on campus.
DirectDefense
Top Executive: Jim Broome, President and CTO
DirectDefense is protecting industrial IoT systems with a comprehensive suite of security services that include real-time monitoring, smart device testing and technical assessments. This year, the Denver, Colo.-based company invested in several key partnerships, such as a collaboration with Dragos to provide operational technology security solutions, and made big hires, including former Cisco Systems product management leader Varun Dhingra as vice president of services product management and Melissa Cox, who previously worked for Cisco’s ThousandEyes division and is now serving as DirectDefense’s senior director of operations.
EPAM Systems
Top Executive: Arkadiy Dobkin, CEO, President and Chairman
EPAM Systems is helping businesses take things to the next level with end-to-end development and engineering services that help them deliver innovative IoT solutions. Among its offerings, the Newtown, Pa.-based solution provider sells an AI-powered, multi-purpose device and platform called GRAIN, which takes in data from a several sensors, processes the data locally and uses that data to provide smart predictive analytics.
GrayMatter
Top Executive: Paul Galeski, CEO
GrayMatter is laser-focused on helping manufacturers improve and protect their operations with industrial IoT solutions that range from advanced analytics to managed detection and response. The Warrendale, Pa.-based solution provider in May announced that it had received a significant investment of an undisclosed amount from private equity firm Tailwind Capital to accelerate its expansion after growing organically and through two recent acquisitions.
Insight Enterprises
Top Executive: Joyce Mullen, President and CEO
Insight Enterprises is helping businesses in a wide range of industries develop real-time insights with edge computing solutions. The industries serviced by the Chandler, Ariz.-based solution provider include agriculture, for which it has developed real-time monitoring solutions, and smart cities, where the company has developed a platform for simplifying lighting, waste management and safety.
iT1
Top Executives: Bryan Clifton and Guy Steinbrink, Co-Founders and Principals
iT1 is helping organizations improve the experiences of customers and users through IoT solutions that meet their unique needs. For instance, the Tempe, Ariz.-based solution provider is helping health care organizations improve patient care and reduce workloads for short-staffed nurse teams with solutions for detecting falls, among other things. The company also provides solutions that can help schools improve safety and security through things like gunshot detection, infrared monitoring and locked-door technology.
Kalypso (Rockwell Automation)
Top Executive: Austin Locke, Principal & Global Practice Leader, Data Science & AI
Kalypso, a Rockwell Automation business, is helping manufacturers solve a variety of problems with consulting, design and managed services for IoT solutions. The Milwaukee, Wis.-based solution provider said it has developed more than 4,000 projects for over 1,000 brands. Those projects include a remote servicing solution that significantly improved downtime for a cancer-fighting equipment made by a medical device company and a predictive control system that greatly reduced water usage for the city of Melbourne.
Klika Tech
Top Executives: Val Kamenski and Gennadiy Borisov, Co-CEOs
Klika Tech is helping businesses overcome a variety of challenges with custom IoT solutions across health care, agriculture, retail and other industries. This year, the Miami, Fla.-based company bolstered its IoT practice through new partnerships with Nordic Semiconductor for designing wireless IoT solutions, Espressif Systems for providing a customizable platform that enables scalable and cost-effective IoT solutions, and Seeed Studio for developed integrated solutions across various industries.
Kudelski Group
Top Executive: David Chétrit, CEO
Kudelski Group is helping businesses develop and maintain secure IoT solutions through its Kudelski IoT division, which provides services for training, design, evaluation, certification and other aspects related to protecting connected devices. The Switzerland-based company gained new capabilities this year through new partnerships with Infineon for enhancing smart home device security, Microchip Technology for cloud-based device provisioning and lifecycle management, and Dolphin Design for simplifying the development of highly secure chip solutions for edge devices.
NTT Data
Top Executive: Abhijit Dubey, CEO
NTT Data is helping businesses unlock new avenues of growth and efficiency with a suite of IoT solutions. The Tokyo, Japan-based solution provider in July unveiled its new Ultralight edge AI platform that uses small, cost-effective machine learning models to analyze data from a variety of sources, including sensors and industrial machinery, and deliver real-time insights for businesses looking to improve their operations. The platform is meant to complement NTT Data’s solutions for enterprise IoT, edge compute and private 5G.
Optiv
Top Executive: Kevin Lynch, CEO
Optiv is helping businesses protect IoT devices and operational technology environments with a comprehensive suite of services. In addition to offering real-time detection and response solutions, the Denver, Colo.-based company provides workshops that help customers learn best IoT security as well as services for identifying IoT devices on corporate networks and giving advice on IoT device procurement through the lens of security. The managed security services provider also offers services for security risk assessments, threat modeling as well as technology deployment and integration.
Patti Engineering
Top Executive: Sam Hoff, CEO
Patti Engineering is helping manufacturers overcome challenges in automation with solutions for industrial IoT, robotics, control systems integration and asset tracking. In December of last year, the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based solution provider joined the Arduino System Integrators Partnership Program as a platinum partner to develop low-cost edge devices that can collect and process data from legacy machinery.
Syntax Systems
Top Executive: Christian Primeau, Global CEO
Syntax Systems integrates IoT technologies with enterprise resource planning systems to help businesses improve operations in manufacturing, construction and mining. The Montreal, Canada-based solution provider in April announced a partnership with Cogniac Corporation to improve manufacturing processes with a solution that integrates Cogniac’s computer vision platform with Syntax’s enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution system, programmable logic controller and IoT capabilities.
Tech Superpowers
Top Executive: Michael Oh, President and Founder
Tech Superpowers is helping solve problems for residential and commercial spaces with integrated IoT solutions. The Boston-based solution provider’s IoT work includes smart technology infrastructure at the city’s 10 World Trade building and audio-video integration for Evolved by Nature’s headquarters. The company also offers smart home integration services under its practice called TSP Smart Spaces with capabilities ranging from smart lighting solutions to smart home security.
ThingLogix
Top Executive: Carl Krupitzer, CEO and Founder
ThingLogix is helping organizations create innovative connected products with services that span from user research and product ideation to system development and deployment. The San Francisco-based solution provider develops IoT solutions using ThingLogix Foundry, an open-source application building framework that enables the company to develop scalable applications with lower up-front costs. The company then takes advantage of cloud architectures through Amazon Web Services to offer hardened security and connectivity as well as an impactful user experience
Trek10
Top Executive: Jim Abercrombie, President and Co-Founder
Trek10 is helping businesses solve everyday problems with IoT solutions that are built on top of services from Amazon Web Services. The South Bend, Ind.-based solution provider said it can develop an architecture as the foundation for an IoT application within six weeks, provide a framework for monitoring devices and enable use cases such as predictive maintenance and anomaly detection by connecting industrial equipment to the cloud.
Wachter
Top Executive: Brian Sloan, CEO
Wachter helps organizations achieve their goals by designing and deploying IoT solutions that integrate sensors and machine-to-machine data. Among its capabilities, the Lenexa, Kan.-based solution provider is taking advantage of Scenara’s MAIstro data platform to help retailers improve their operations by enabling real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance capabilities for in-store appliances.
Waverley Software
Top Executive: Matt Brown, Founder and CEO
Waverley Software helps businesses develop scalable and custom IoT applications with a variety of services that touch everything from device architecture to cloud infrastructure. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based solution provider can work with a wide range of device and hardware types, from smart panels and sensors to wearables and household devices to develop bespoke solutions for a number of industries, including energy, avionics, manufacturing, smart home and health care.
World Wide Technology
Top Executive: Jim Kavanaugh, Co-Founder and CEO
World Wide Technology is helping businesses across various industries become more competitive and efficient through the development of integrated IoT solutions. The St. Louis, Mo.-based solution provider in July announced that it had signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services to boost, among other things, the development of edge AI solutions that combine on-premises and cloud systems to enable use cases like computer vision, digital twins and inference, among other things.