Building and Deploying Enterprise M2M Applications with Axeda Platform

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1 w h i t e p a p e r Building and Deploying Enterprise M2M Applications with Axeda Platform According to Harbor Research, there are billions of wired and wireless intelligent assets around the globe that can be connected and managed to extract business value. These intelligent assets will create a surge of business solutions that will transform the world in which we live and work. There is technology available today to make assets digitally aware and networked. However, these disparate point technologies all come with the same inherent problems: a focus on niche solutions, an inability to scale across the enterprise, and support for a single hardware or communications vendor. As a result, companies cannot harness the full power of their intelligent assets to drive change, improve efficiency, and ultimately achieve new levels of competitive advantage. To achieve these benefits by connecting to and managing any wired or wireless asset anywhere in the world, companies need a proven, scalable, and secure M2M platform. The platform must be delivered on-demand with enterprise-class capabilities and simplified integration, out-of-the-box applications, as well as Web Services to accelerate the development of custom applications that manage, service, and track assets for specific requirements. Axeda Platform provides you with the foundation to quickly build and deploy Enterprise M2M applications. Built-in Web Services enable custom application development as well as simplify integration with enterprise systems. Axeda ServiceLink on-demand applications enable service and support organizations at more than 100 top product manufacturers to quickly and easily remotely identify, diagnose, and repair issues for maximum asset uptime. Finally, Axeda Platform includes core infrastructure capabilities for enterprise-level scalability and security using wireless communications and edge devices from industry-leading vendors. Now, product manufacturers and enterprises can connect, manage, service, and track any wired and wireless intelligent asset anywhere.

2 With Axeda Platform, you can use out-of-the-box Axeda ServiceLink applications, build or run Enterprise M2M applications, or integrate with your hosted applications and enterprise CRM, ERP, and billing systems. Fast Application Development and Deployment Axeda Platform enables you to build Enterprise M2M applications using the development technology of your choice. Choose from Java,.NET, Adobe Flex, or any other development technology that supports SOAP or REST style Web Services. Once you create your applications, you can deploy them at the Axeda on-demand data center, your data center, or at a third-party location based on your needs. In addition, Axeda provides out-of-thebox applications for Smart Services and for the administration of Axeda Platform. Use Out-of-the-Box Axeda Applications: Axeda ServiceLink. These applications provide Web-based user interfaces to monitor, manage, and repair wired and wireless assets. Service and support organizations can remotely access assets, troubleshoot problems, perform preventive maintenance, automate software patch and update distribution, and generate reports that show the value of Smart Services. Axeda Platform Configuration and Axeda Administration. All features of the Axeda Platform are accessible through Web Services, but many of the features can be configured through the UI. Examples include rule and model definition, asset grouping, notifications, alarms, and user grouping and permissions.

3 Build Your Own Applications: Axeda Platform Application Container. To simplify application deployment, Axeda Platform provides an application container to run your applications within our on-demand data center. Initially, the container supports deployment of Adobe Flex applications. In future releases, other application development tools will be supported. Axeda Hosted Applications. Axeda can host your application, built on your technology of choice, running on a server within our on-demand data center. The server can be scaled to meet the needs of you application from a virtual machine instance within a shared service to a dedicated rack of servers. Customer Hosted Applications. You can host your own application, in your data center or at a third-party hosting or cloud-computing provider. Using Web Services and message queues, your Enterprise M2M application can take advantage of the Axeda Platform regardless of its location. Enterprise Applications. The Axeda Platform fully supports integration with enterprise applications, such as CRM, ERP, and billing systems, from Oracle, SAP, and other leading providers. Key Technologies for Application Development: Axeda SDK. Axeda Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of APIs that allows developers to extend and customize Axeda Platform via a powerful embedded scripting engine. The Axeda SDK exposes the platform data model, services, and more, and can be used to extend the already powerful rules engine with custom capabilities. Web Services. Axeda Platform exposes a rich set of Web Services for both SOAP and REST consumption. SOAP-based client applications can access Axeda Platform WSDL descriptions (Web Services Description Language) to integrate with Axeda Platform through its public API layer, which provides access to the core Axeda Platform objects and data. REST-based clients may similarly access the same services. Standard Web protocols, HTTP, and HTTPS are used to access Axeda Platform s Web Services. Message Queuing. Axeda Platform uses Apache ActiveMQ to send messages and relevant data about any event that occurs in the platform. Message consumers can subscribe to receive these messages and build custom workflows and new business processes.

4 The figure below illustrates how the messaging functionality works in Axeda Platform. Step 1: The device generates an alarm and sends it to Axeda Platform. Step 2: Axeda Platform processes the alarm and evaluates business rules. Expression Rules have standard actions for publishing messages. If a Rule has been set up to publish a message on receipt of an alarm, a message is sent to the corresponding queue on the ActiveMQ server. Step 3: The Message consumers that are listening for messages on that particular queue, receive the message and process it as required. Simplified Enterprise Integration Axeda Platform has an open architecture built on standards-based technology and uses built-in Web Services for two-way communications with other enterprise systems. Axeda Platform captures live, up-to-date information about all your fixed and mobile assets, giving your CRM, ERP, and other enterprise systems real-time data to speed operations. For example, detected product faults can trigger automatic generation of a trouble ticket in a CRM system, dispatching field technicians with detailed information on required repairs. Usage data can be sent to billing and supply chain management systems, eliminating error-prone manual steps and process time delays. Axeda has enabled companies in many industries to integrate Axeda Platform with their enterprise systems, including SAP and Oracle applications. With built-in functionality based on industry-standard Web Services technology, Axeda Platform simplifies and accelerates integration.

5 Axeda Platform integrates Smart Service capabilities with Siebel CRM to enhance service operations. Axeda Custom Objects Axeda Custom Objects are the connections between Axeda Platform and external systems. This powerful technology allows you to author scripts that push, pull, and reformat information between Axeda and other systems. With Axeda Custom Objects, you can automatically push product data from Axeda Platform into your on-premise or on-demand CRM system. Using Axeda Custom Objects scripting, rules, notifications, and Web Services you can easily configure an application to invoke a script to run; define the devices to which the scripts need to be sent; create the notification to send; create the rules that will evaluate messages sent to the server; and run the actions to send notifications. Example Expression Rules: Find X events in Y time Search event message for string Process incoming data into new data items Send XML-formatted content to URLs Make Web Services calls to open a ticket in a CRM system Write entries into the system audit log

6 Creating, editing, and managing custom rules and actions can all be done through Axeda Platform user interface quickly and easily eliminating the need for Java specialists to create customizations. Axeda Platform includes a test environment that allows developers to run test rules and expressions using simulated data.

7 Summary The experience of creating Enterprise M2M applications should allow application developers to focus on what s important the unique value of the application being built. Axeda Platform provides the infrastructure and core services to enable that focus. The powerful combination of an advanced rules engine, scripting engine, SDK, and Web Service APIs facilitate the rapid construction of robust, secure, and scalable Enterprise M2M applications. About Axeda Axeda Corporation is the leading Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) company delivering high-value M2M solutions. The company s VeriSign Security certified platform and applications allow companies to connect, manage, service, and interact with wired and wireless assets anywhere it serves over 100 of the world s leading enterprises including Agilent, Diebold, and EMC. Axeda Corporation is a privately held company headquartered in Foxboro, Mass. and can be reached at 25 Forbes Blvd. Suite 3 Foxboro, MA USA t f Copyright Axeda Corporation. Axeda is a registered trademark of Axeda Corporation. Axeda ServiceLink, Axeda Agents, Axeda Applications, Axeda Policy Manager, Axeda Enterprise, Axeda Access, Axeda Software Management, Axeda Service, Axeda Usage, and Firewall-Friendly are trademarks and Maximum Results and Maximum Support are servicemarks of Axeda Corporation. All other trademarks are either property of Axeda Corporation or property of their respective owners.