Observability is well established in the Cloud and app software development space, but the embedded industry is behind the curve, said Jesse Dukes, Director of Product Marketing at Memfault, in a conversation with IoT Insider at Hardware Pioneers.
At the latest edition of the show Memfault took it as an opportunity to talk about their observability platform, which essentially provides their hardware customers with the tools to monitor the performance of their devices deployed in the field, and understand the root cause of issues, as and when they do arise.
Dukes noted that a typical approach in the embedded industry was for companies to build their own system to collect the data generated by connected devices in the field – something that works until it comes to the question of scaling.
“When we talk to teams we find that once they get into production and start to scale, then two things happen: firstly, they realise that actually maintaining those internal systems as well as their actual product becomes really, really demanding on their resources. Secondly, if they are collecting data, they aren’t collecting the right kind of data that they need.”
Enter Memfault.
Their platform provides visibility into devices with a focus on a frictionless, out-of-the box experience, and a team who has expertise and know-how of what can go wrong with connected devices.
A shifting mindset towards observability
The decision some companies make in building their own platform from scratch and later encountering issues with scaling is because there hasn’t been an option before, Dukes suggested, and the custom nature of connected products.
“So many of the devices people work on are … unique. There’ll be a unique combination of architecture, of [the] operating system, of connectivity and use cases. A lot of what they will have had to do is going to be custom to some degree,” he added. “That is changing in embedded [more] generally, people are relying more on open-source solutions and on third-party tooling. But it’s still a transition that is in progress and [is] still behind other fields of software development.”
Alongside a shifting mindset, the requirements of regulation like the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) for companies to report any security issues means Memfault is well-positioned to meet demand for observability solutions.
“You’re going to have to … be able to understand at least to some degree what’s happening to that device in the field, is it exposed to vulnerabilities, et cetera,” said Dukes. “You’re going to have to do this. It’s not going to be an option anymore. And then teams will have to make the choice of … doing it themselves, which comes with a load of implications like additional resources, slightly extended project life cycles, and then you’re carrying a lot of the regulatory risk yourself.
“Or you look for a solution … that has a lot of this stuff pre-built for you, and you can just plug it in and stay focused on your products.”
One final message Dukes was keen to impart was the customer experience element of ensuring observability with devices in the field. For companies who have this in place, being able to identify issues in devices early on, such as bugs, and fix them, means customers won’t necessarily notice a dip in service.
“This happens to the big brands too,” Dukes said of falling short with customer service due to device issues. “It’s not exclusive to teams that are moving faster and [are] constrained in their resources. Getting this wrong is a risk for all teams. Having the ability to understand what your devices are doing in the field and how, when you’re rolling out a new software version, that version is performing.”
In a customer case study he could not yet name, he said that from implementing the Memfault platform, the customer noticed an uptick in customer satisfaction, reflected in their Amazon reviews – the kind of measurable effect of improving upon observability and receiving good reviews that most companies dream of.
“The benefits here are significant if you get it right, and we’ve seen that reflected in the customers we work with,” Dukes said. A good takeaway.
We also spoke to Blecon at the latest edition of Hardware Pioneers. You can read about their last 11 months here.
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