Think about this: The IoT application your DevOps team is developing right now, if successful at scale, will likely be the longest-living application in your shop. It may even outlive the tenure of many of your team members with your company. Is IoT future-proofing possible over a life cycle of 10 years or more? Yes, with some insight for the long haul borrowed from industrial and defense computing experience.
That may sound counterintuitive for DevOps because those industries aren’t exactly known for agile processes. They’re designed around minimizing change and containing risk in mission-critical situations. IoT technology is evolving rapidly and it’s difficult to say what things may look like in a year or two, much less 10. What IoT applications have in common with industrial and defense systems is that they are often complex. Your operational technology (OT) people probably appreciate how complex their existing production environments have been. IoT applications add elements of wireless connectivity, cloud architecture, real-time performance, end-to-end security and algorithmic sophistication.
At-scale IoT applications will require mastery of complexity, and lessons learned can help. The objective is not to avoid change but rather to “build the airplane while flying.” The core DevOps concept of continuous application release and testing needs to extend beyond just the application code. Teams will need to be detail oriented, looking at device configurations, interoperability, data integrity and how analytic insights evolve as data accumulates.
Device Configurations
Buying an enterprise server usually means selecting a commodity: Pick a processor model and frequency, memory size, number of Ethernet and USB ports, storage interfaces and packaging. In the cloud, selections in elastic instances are even easier. As long as the box fits and runs the desired operating system, the details of what’s inside aren’t that important. If you have to buy another one in two or three years, there are likely higher performance choices available.
In long-lifecycle computing for IoT applications, boxes aren’t commodities. Real-time performance drives differences in processor and board architecture. If you have to buy another one in two or three years, that could be a problem. Vendors often offer industrial and defense customers revision control services, ranging from notification of changes to extended availability of specific configurations. Assuring supply sometimes means a lifetime purchase of components, perhaps as bonded inventory for a customer.
Interoperability
Even simple IoT devices, such as wireless sensors, can present a problem on a 10-year scale. Connectivity specifications evolve, with both major changes and minor revisions. Cellular standards reach sunset as mobile subscribers leave them behind. Vendor support for older gear is often given reluctantly, frequently expensive and sometimes non-existent unless an upgrade is executed.
Choosing interoperable frameworks with robust ecosystems will be critical for success in the long haul. Teams should be prepared with a “plan B” if a vendor is acquired and stops offering a specific configuration, or if they cease operations altogether. Devices with over-the-air (OTA) programming help keep pace with specification changes and alleviate security concerns as they arise.
Data Integrity
Teams won’t be able to just stop the IoT plane and work on it. Data collected on day 1 will be just as valuable as data collected on day 3650, if it’s handled correctly through IoT future-proofing tactics. Often, IoT devices connect to networks easily. The real test of an IoT application comes when data starts flowing, perhaps from thousands of devices. Is the data from an authorized device? Is all the data in the correct format? Is it time-stamped properly? Is it checked for errors and missing frames?
Presumably, when an IoT application succeeds, the temptation to scale quickly sets in. Suppose a new group of sensors is added with the same class of information in a slightly different format. The system should abstract formats and sanitize data at the edge, so all data reaching the cloud is ready for algorithmic processing. For example, JSON is one tool that can help with abstraction. Edge computing may also use generative models to reduce data transmitted to the cloud, forwarding only out-of-bounds conditions for further analysis.
Analytic Insights
At the onset of an IoT project, teams have an idea of what they have set out to accomplish. Inevitably, as projects mature new insights come out of analytics. The architecture may not be optimized to deliver those insights in real-time, and changes may be necessary to speed up delivery of algorithmic results. Workflow optimization is an ongoing process for IoT teams. This is the ultimate instance of rebuilding the plane while in flight, extracting more value from an in-place system.
The Ethos of IoT Future-Proofing
IoT future-proofing is possible by embracing both the longevity and the complexity of the application. Shifting your team ethos from maintaining a static configuration to developing a living application architecture, helps overcome events certain to happen over a 10-year life cycle and beyond.
