Samsung Debuts New Cloud Service Aimed At Turning IoT Data Into Business Revenue

Samsung on Monday announced a new service as part of its ARTIK IoT platform that the company hopes will help manufacturers and service providers monetize the data flowing through their IoT devices.

The service, ARTIK Cloud Monetization For IoT, allows companies to tap into the data on their IoT devices to create service plans and generate revenue. Manufacturers can use ARTIK Cloud Monetization to create a brokering, metering and payments system, so they have the flexibility to define service plans that meet their business needs.

"Samsung ARTIK Cloud Monetization uniquely positions us to help device manufacturers find new ways to make money from IoT and enable more applications for their customers," said James Stansberry, senior vice president and global head of ARTIK at Samsung Electronics in a statement. "This is part of our long-term strategy to facilitate the development of secure IoT products and services, promote wide-scale interoperability, and create a platform and business model for an entire IoT ecosystem to thrive. Like the mobile phone industry, IoT will be driven by open systems, interoperability, and support from innovative applications.’

[Related: Ramped-Up Investments In IoT Security Mean Solution Providers Better Be Ready]

Device manufacturers today face challenges with the data costs associated with free applications and that support an ecosystem of third-party devices, apps and services. Manufacturers have to absorb the data costs of operating devices in the field or factor in anticipated data costs to the retail price of devices.

ARTIK Cloud helps manufacturers avoid this by brokering and metering user interactions against the defined plan, and managing upgrades, payments and revenue share back to the device OEM.

Samsung revealed ARTIK as its new platform for managing and maintaining devices connected to the Internet of Things in 2015. In 2016, the company said that it would dish out $1.2 billion in four years for IoT-related research and startups.

But behind Samsung's sweeping IoT announcements, the company has been hard at work growing a channel that is equipped to bring IoT solutions to vertical markets.

"We're excited to partner with Samsung ARTIK on the new monetization model," said Stefan Grosjean, founder and CEO of Smappee, a Samsung partner, said in a statement. "Increasing the reach of devices while also providing a path to monetization is key to the successful evolution of IoT."

The company's IoT strategy revolves around not the actual technology itself – but problem-solving, Samsung Vice President of IoT Enterprise Ed Abrams told CRN.

"When we think about IoT from a business-to-business perspective, we don’t want to start with the technology side – we instead think of the 'business problem' side of it, and then bring in the technology after," said Abrams. "Too many people are caught up with the gadget side of IoT. We're seeing great partner engagement around IoT – it's our partners who recognize that this is the future and they can differentiate themselves in the market. We're seeing not only real excitement but also real engagement."