IoT.nxt’s innovative Raptor product range celebrates its 4th anniversary this month and since its launch has added several new products assisting rapid digital transformation at diverse companies in different sectors globally.

The first product in the Raptor range was Edge Raptor which was designed to be deployed on third-party gateways. It was designed to filter, aggregate, normalize, and abstract edge device data required to facilitate and manage business processes. By managing data at the edge, only allowing the relevant device data to flow through to IoT.nxt’s Commander platform, Raptor solved the problem of big data overload. This method of data orchestration makes it possible to overcome challenges that typically arise from poor coordination across value chains.

“Since the introduction of the first Edge Raptor, we now have several additional Raptor products that are used to integrate with sensors, devices, and even other systems. Each Raptor in the range has a specific function, but the main aim is to integrate with as many devices as possible and to enable bi-directional communication between devices and the rest of the IoT.nxt’s Commander IoT ecosystem,” says André Jacobs, IoT.nxt Chief of Product Engineering.

The most recent addition to the Raptor range, Virtual Raptor (V-Raptor), a virtual gateway, was selected as the winner of the Enterprise IoT Management Innovation category in the annual IoT Breakthrough Awards program in January this year. V-Raptor also won the category Research and Development or new Launch in the IoT Global Awards announced in November 2021.

“V-Raptor was launched in January 2020 to support an IoT deployment of significant scale that presented the need for a virtual gateway. An IoT aggregation layer was needed that could be deployed closer to the IoT devices inside a customer’s network to ensure a high degree of security while providing a way to send high-velocity data to our IoT platform Commander in the cloud,” Jacobs, says.

The other product in the range is the Micro Raptor, released in May 2020, is IoT.nxt’s own bespoke cost-effective hardware and firmware IoT edge gateway that can be tailored to specific device integrations.

The company is also working on a range of its own gateway devices that are tailored towards specific IoT solutions on which Edge Raptor software can be deployed. The first of which is scheduled for release in the next few months.

Data gathered through a Raptor is ingested by Commander, normalised, augmented, and provides customers with a plethora of applications to visualise data through web and mobile dashboards, provides instant alarming, acts based on predefined triggers, and allows for upstream integration to third party applications. A comprehensive Big Data, Business Intelligence, and Machine Learning module, called Foundry, is in development and will be launched in the current year as well.

“The true value of an IoT solution lies in the near real-time availability of all business data that allows enterprises to track activity, respond to issues like breakdowns swiftly, unlock efficiencies and reduce costs. Our platform is designed to address the challenges of any business in any industry and deliver key insights into business operations. Raptor and Commander creates a powerful end-to-end IoT platform which enables our partners to build innovative solutions for their customers,” Jacobs notes.

MAJOR RAPTOR MILESTONES

Edge Raptor

  • Edge Raptor released (March 2018)
  • Dedicated CANmine solution for mining vehicles (June 2019)
  • Smart building support (Sep 2019)
  • Intelligent edge algorithms (November 2019)
  • Commander single sign-on support (July 2021)
  • Site-creation wizard for large scale projects (Sep 2021)
  • Smart battery and rectifier life-cycle management (Oct 2021)
  • Smart workflow for custom edge data management and actuation (Nov 2021)

Virtual Raptor

  • Virtual Raptor released (January 2020)
  • Self Service application launched allowing for easy deployment of drivers (September 2021)
  • Software Development Kit that enables third party driver development (June 2020)
  • Native driver signing and package manager (February 2021)
  • Redesigned mobile first user interface (April 2021)
  • Commander single sign-on support (April 2021)
  • Successful deployment into multiple private networks on-prem in multiple countries (March 2021)
  • Highly scalable, high availability support (clustering) (October 2021)
  • Commander multi-tenancy support (8 April 2021)

Micro Raptor

  • Micro Raptor released (May 2020)
  • Commander integration via V-Raptor (June 2020)
  • Dedicated generator monitoring solution (August 2020)