IoT Projects: What Clients Need to Know
IoT (Internet of Things) projects — connecting physical devices to digital systems — have unique complexity compared to standard web or app development.
The IoT Stack
- Device/Hardware: Physical device with sensors, actuators, and connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, LoRaWAN)
- Firmware: Software running on the device
- Connectivity: How data travels from device to cloud (MQTT, HTTP, CoAP)
- Cloud platform: Where device data is received and processed (AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub)
- Application: Dashboard or app that end users interact with
Unique Challenges
- Hardware variability: Real-environment testing is essential — simulators are insufficient
- Connectivity reliability: Devices must handle disconnection gracefully and queue data for later transmission
- OTA updates: Firmware update mechanisms must be designed from day one
- Security: Device authentication, encrypted communication, and secure credential storage are non-negotiable
- Scale: Design for target scale from the start — 10 devices behaves very differently from 10,000
Your Role
- Access to physical deployment environments for testing
- Hardware procurement (we advise; you typically purchase)
- Network connectivity planning for deployed devices