If you are planning an IoT network, you have a couple of decisions to make. Both technical and business in nature. One of them is choosing the roles that your devices will be playing in the scheme. Should an IoT device act as a client or a server? And what if you could create an IoT server accessible through the internet on a microcontroller? A decentralized IoT?
Let’s save the best for last. For now, let’s focus on the roles themselves. Let’s face it – currently, almost all IoT devices on the market are clients, not servers. The server is singular, and it’s an IoT platform to which all clients are connecting to.
Benefits of a decentralized IoT
Cloudless IoT has many perks that traditional solutions heavily lack. Serverless IoT is the next logical step in the development of modern, scalable, and low latency IoT systems. They should allow seamless data streaming and distribution while providing unrivaled security and transparency on the back-end. That’s a lot more than marketing jargon could handle on paper. A solution has the “X-factor” or doesn’t.
The lack of decentralized IoT is linked to the risk of centralization of the data. Right now, information is harvested, stored, and processed by third-party applications. You can trust them or not. You don’t know what happens to your data exactly. Sure, it can be sold to advertisers and give proof of work to investors but what else? Cloudless IoT eliminates that problem. The privacy-preserving IoT is something to think about, no matter what company you run or the type of data you have.
Another aspect to consider is tracking. Nearly every device connected to the internet now has the capabilities to track, log, and send various types of information. The privacy-preserving IoT network gives you the comfort of running business operations without having to think about what goes when and to whom.
Serverless IoT also provides freedom and automation. Imagine that you can find free parking space, ease traffic levels or open a smart garage door without being tracked by the platform provider. You don’t have to think about it, it just works. Dead simple.
Technical aspects of cloudless IoT
The problem with the current model is that the connection of each device in the IoT network goes through the internet. Even if devices are in the same room, a few feet apart. That breeds challenges mentioned above, plus a few additional ones.
Main concern is a privacy - you need to trust the IoT cloud provider that he doesn’t have any backdoor allowing him to get access to your data, or control your devices - eg. smart garage door.
Another is latency - what if the provider’s server is in California, and you are controlling the color of a Wi-Fi connected smart light bulb 2 meters away from you? Forget about real-time user experience and welcome half a second lag because the information needs to cross thousands of miles back and forth.
Another concert is cost - someone has to pay for the transmission of the data plus maintenance. The more you send and burden the network, the more you spend.
Do you remember Garmin servers being hacked last year? The same thing might happen once more if your IoT is dependent on the central cloud. Prepare for the worst case scenario where your device can malfunction for weeks until the IoT cloud provider pays a ransom. That’s a sad truth - to hack a centralized system, you need to focus only on the central element (with known public IP). To hack the distributed system, you need to hack even thousands of devices without knowing their IP at all. Seems like a harder task.
And since we’re on the topic… Decentralized IoT is easy when it comes to maintenance. You don’t have to configure it extensively. Think about additional security measures, etc.
A decentralized IoT solution for all challenges
What you need is an IoT VPN. A solution that mitigates all the risks, frees you from shortcomings of traditionally understood cloudless IoT, and brings something extra to the table. Husarnet is exactly that.
It’s a VPN for IoT that, for the lack of better words, transfers an IoT platform from the server to the IoT device. In other words, you need two devices capable of connecting to the internet... and that’s pretty much it. Magic happens.
Devices connected to the Husarnet network behave like they were both connected to the same Wi-Fi router. It’s a solution that’s cheap, effortless, easy to set up, and requires minimum to zero maintenance through the entire lifecycle.
We have designed the platform to meet high standards of security and convenience. Plus, it’s the only IoT VPN on the market that allows you to make an IoT server on a microcontroller that's accessible through the internet. Additional benefits that come with it:
It’s private and secure. You can control all your smart devices without transferring data through 3rd party servers. No compromises and total control.
It gives you IoT without the cloud. Your smartphone application can connect with any smart device directly. You don’t need an API server. No configuration, no wasted time.
It’s reliable. There is life without an API. All you need is an internet connection. You can’t be hacked, you can’t fall victim to a DDoS attack.
It’s highly scalable. Husarnet will work for two devices, two thousand and twenty thousand. All can be connected to the same network. The bigger your organization, the more practical our solution.
Our low-latency IoT is a solution that can be used anywhere, any time, and with virtually anything. Decentralized IoT is something you probably didn’t anticipate, not in the form of a P2P connection. This is what we offer. Can you afford not to use it?