WDLabs Enables Internet Of Things For App And Device Developers

IRVINE, CA – WDLabs is utilizing its WD My Cloud OS3 device in conjunction with the IBM Internet of Things (IoT) Foundation and the ARM mbed IoT Device Platform to provide developers a flexible platform to support advanced analytics and data application services.

At the ARM TechCon conference in Santa Clara, CA, WDLabs will be demonstrating a proof-of-concept on how the WD My Cloud OS 3 SDK provides an ideal platform for developing applications at the edge. In addition, IoT sensor data may be stored and analyzed when integrated with the ARM mbed IoT Device Platform and IBM IoT Foundation. Ultimately, knowledge gained from analysis of multiple data sources can be combined to achieve further insight.

Together the companies create a viable infrastructure for developers to create better and smarter apps that process IoT and video data at the edge. Western Digital, IBM and ARM play three significant roles to enable the development in an end-to-end IoT infrastructure for app and device developers, such as:

"Western Digital is enabling inventors and businesses to be more productive, while storing data locally on My Cloud systems," said Richard E. Rutledge, SVP of marketing, WDLabs. "The My Cloud OS SDK and platform enable app developers to efficiently connect to their apps and run local analytics and metadata."

The demonstration will address the following pain points for app developers in IoT:
• Performance: Maintaining data locally provides faster access to more actionable data. By using local analytics, only necessary and relevant video data and metadata need to be sent to the cloud. Local analytics can be run on My Cloud OS 3, with complex analytics in IBM IoT Foundation for greater functionality. Latency problems are reduced because users are not sending all of the data set to the datacenter and back. Local data retention also means a user can run edge-based trend analysis on historical data.
• Control: Storing data locally allows a user to control what's shared. Only pre-processed fractions of the data must be transferred to the cloud for more comprehensive analytics.
• Cost: Data storage latency and resource costs are reduced by storing most of the data locally on a My Cloud device. Subscription fees are eliminated and bandwidth requirements are lower.
• Security: Pre-processed data is encrypted when transferred to the cloud.

The impact of IoT lies in the sheer volume of data generated. More and more of the world's activity is being expressed digitally by billions of interconnected devices. The resulting data provides businesses with the ability to learn more about their operating environment and to act with the potential of creating new value. IoT is helping businesses better understand and manage very complex systems, such as smart surveillance buildings. According to IDC, 61 percent of the organizations surveyed by the firm are actively pursuing IoT initiatives1.

It is estimated from IDC that by 2020, IoT spending will rise to $3 trillion and there will be nearly 30 billion IoT devices2. As IoT sensors generate more and more data at the edge, in systems such as automation and video surveillance for smart homes/buildings, there is not a simple or clear way to save, aggregate and learn from all the data that is being generated.

"As the IoT grows, there is an increased demand for reliable, secure and productive embedded software and web services," said Zach Shelby, vice president of marketing, IoT business, ARM. "ARM mbed is providing the building blocks to simplify the creation and deployment of secure and reliable IoT applications at scale. The collaboration with Western Digital and IBM offers mbed developers the key value-add features to enable a full end-to-end IoT infrastructure solution."

"We are excited about collaborating with both Western Digital and ARM on a real-world example of secure distributed analytics for the Internet of Things," said John Cohn, IBM Fellow, Internet of Things. "The proof of concept shows how easy it is to link ARM's mbed devices to IBM real-time analytics by way of Western Digital's highly secure storage My Cloud gateway. Together we are showing how we can efficiently move workloads through a highly secure gateway and obtain real-time insights through a combination of advanced analytics on the edge and in the cloud."

My Cloud SDK Platform:

The My Cloud device SDK, based on the Docker™ open platform technology, ensures developers can easily access and collaborate to create customized experiences. Partners already developing extensions and new features based on the new SDK include Plex and Milestone. To learn more about the My Cloud platform for developers, visit http://developer.mycloud.com  

For more info, visit http://www.westerndigital.com