The Week In Review: IoT

Deals
Verizon Communications agreed to acquire Sensity Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., a supplier of energy-efficient light-emitting diode lighting equipment to serve as the foundation for its Internet of Things platform for smart cities; financial terms weren’t disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Mike Lanman, Verizon’s senior vice president of Enterprise Products and IoT, said in a statement, “Sensity is a leading provider of IoT solutions for smart communities with a strong ecosystem of partners, and this transaction will accelerate the deployment of large-scale implementations that will drive the digital transformation of cities, universities, and venues. Verizon is uniquely positioned through its infrastructure investments at the network, platform and application levels to provide holistic solutions that empower communities to address their most pervasive challenges.”

Nok Nok Labs and Gallagher Group will jointly develop a platform providing an open standards-based method of authenticating Internet of Things systems, employing mobile devices. Nok Nok is a founding member of the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance. The FIDO Certified Nok Nok S3 Authentication Suite will be integrated with the Gallagher Command Centre under the agreement between the companies.

Products
Synopsys on Monday brought out the DesignWare ARC SEM110 and ARC SEM120D security processors for low-power, embedded applications, including smart metering. The processor intellectual property features the company’s SecureShield technology to guard against hardware, software, and side-channel attacks, and is said to provide separate secure and non-secure functions as part of a Trusted Execution Environment. The DesignWare ARC SEM110 and ARC SEM120D processors will be made available in October.

Security
Cybersecurity researchers at last month’s DEF CON 24 conference report uncovering more than 47 new vulnerabilities in 23 Internet of Things devices from 21 brand-name manufacturers. The study emerged from the second annual IoT Village, a traveling security event that will next turn up at DerbyCon in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 21-25. “In the past two years, IoT Village has uncovered 113 critical, previously unknown vulnerabilities across both consumer and business products from some of the largest brand names in the world,” Ted Harrington, executive partner of Independent Security Evaluators, said in a statement. “These discoveries are significant contributions to security research but also illustrate the pressing need for security improvements in IoT devices.”

Market Research
Markets and Markets forecasts the Internet of Things market will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 32.4% over the next six years, increasing from $130.33 billion last year to $883.55 billion by 2022. Those figures, along with other data and information, are featured in a new report, “Internet of Things Technology Market by Hardware (Processor, Sensor, Connectivity Technology), Platform (Device Management Platform, Application Management Platform, Network Management Platform) Software Solutions, and Services, Application, and Geography – Forecast to 2022.”

Finance
McRock Capital announced a $5 million equity investment in Serious Integrated, a developer of human-machine interface and communications platforms that can be used in Industrial Internet of Things applications. “The enormous potential of the IIoT starts with machine connectivity and an intuitive human-machine interface,” Scott MacDonald, managing director of McRock Capital, said in a statement. “Serious has created stunning touch-screen HMI platforms to enable any industrial, commercial or medical OEM to rapidly modernize their fleet and tap into the power of IIoT connectivity.” Serious Integrated will use the investment to enhance existing relationships with Arrow Electronics, Digi-Key, IAR, Micrium, Renesas Electronics, Segger, and other companies.

Global X Funds of New York, which offers exchange-traded funds, this week introduced the Global X Internet of Things Thematic ETF, which trades on Nasdaq as SNSR. The financial services firm also launched the Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Thematic ETF, trading on Nasdaq as BOTZ.

Events
On Thursday, September 22, at 11 a.m. Mountain time, n.io Innovation will present a webcast on how its software platform enables real-time automation, control, and insight in agricultural IoT applications. The webcast will feature Deep Sky Vineyard, a boutique vineyard near Wilcox, Arizona.