HPE Bulks Up Its Enterprise and Industrial IoT Portfolio

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) today took the wraps off new solutions designed to help enterprises and the company’s industrial customers deploy and manage their Internet of Things (IoT) environments.

The Internet of Things encompasses much more than the market for smart home devices and connected cars. Behind the scenes, businesses are using IoT sensors and devices to boost efficiency, automate processes and improve safety at their offices or on the factory floor.

Earlier this year, Technavio forecast that the market for industrial IoT solutions will reach nearly $132 billion by 2020. To reach those heights, vendors will need to deliver enterprise-grade IoT products that aren’t typically found at Best Buy.

Responding to increased demand for industrial IoT solutions, HPE today unveiled a handful of new offerings, including the new HPE Mobile Virtual Network Enabler. The company expects the solution to usher in a community of resellers called IoT Mobile Virtual Network Operators that provide connectivity services to customers. HPE Mobile Virtual Network Enabler combines mobile network operator coverage with provisioning, configuration, management and billing services.

The combo can help businesses slash the cost of provisioning IoT devices by up to 80 percent, claims HPE.

“Cost-prohibitive economics and the lack of a holistic solution are key barriers for mass adoption of IoT,” said Keerti Melkote, senior vice president and general manager of HPE, in a Nov. 30 media advisory. “By approaching IoT with innovations to expand our comprehensive framework built on edge infrastructure solutions, software platforms and technology ecosystem partners, HPE is addressing the cost, complexity and security concerns of organizations looking to enable a new class of services that will transform workplace and operational experiences.”

To help calm one of the biggest worries surrounding the IoT, HPE also introduced the Aruba ClearPass Universal Profiler and Aruba 2540 Series Switches.

As its name suggests, ClearPass Universal Profiler enhances security by profiling IoT devices when a network connection attempt is made. Administrators can then catalog those devices and set the policies governing each. Businesses can use Aruba 2540 Series Switches to provide IoT devices with role-based access to their network resources, improving secure communications in small-to-medium enterprise IoT edge deployments, according to the company.

HPE also announced new updates to HPE Universal IoT Platform, the company’s IoT management, monitoring and analytics suite. The solution can now be used to manage both SIM and non-SIM devices and features expanded support for LoRa gateways. The platform also delivers plug-and-play support for IoT devices and services based on the open-source UIoT (Universal Internet of Things) technology.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.