Why Cisco IoT Control Center is the Leading Connectivity Management Platform on the Market

In a fictional sci-fi future, people will live in a world full of completely autonomous devices endowed with intelligence. These devices will be capable of completing important tasks for humans without any additional commands – monitor health indicators, predict climate changes, control the state of city life support systems – and smart machines will be able to improve productivity and correct common human errors — and all this without a single human intervention.

Well, that future has already arrived. In everyday life, we use “smart” kitchen appliances, live in “smart” homes, or to put it even more simply, we wear fitness bracelets that measure things like our heart rate or the number of steps taken in real time. Today, most things can be connected to the internet – and this is how the real world meets the digital world, thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Internet of Things is the world around us and according to Business Insider’s forecast, the IoT market is on pace to grow by more than $2.4 trillion annually by 2027.

Rise of the Machines

Security issues in IoT is an important topic. The placement, storage, and subsequent processing of data from smart devices requires large computing resources and adaptable hardware capacities.

That is why IoT and cloud technologies are inseparable. The reconstruction of the technical infrastructure of a solution and identification of data for analysis in most cases is carried out on the cloud platform of a selected provider. For example, Cisco IoT Control Center helps you quickly deploy, manage, and monetize your connected devices and applications on a global scale.

Why Cisco IoT Control Center?

Cisco is a reliable partner of Tele2 IoT when it comes to Connectivity Management – and Cisco IoT Control Center (2CONTROL) is the backbone of Tele2 IoT’s offering. Cisco IoT Control Center is a Connectivity Management Platform (CMP) that minimizes the complexity and cost of connected devices management in cellular networks to increase the profitability of IoT business.

It is highly customizable to make sure users have all the capabilities they need both today and in the future.

How does Control Center actually help? Lowers costs, boosts reliability

All companies, regardless of their business, want to ensure that malfunctioning devices don’t generate unexpected cost overruns.

A big advantage of using Cisco IoT Control Center is that users can create numerous rules that change a SIM’s rate plan in response to a particular trigger. For example, if a SIM exceeds its usage limit for the current billing cycle, users might move the device to a different rate plan with more favorable rates and then switch it back to the original rate plan at the end of the month.

Also, Control Center allows you to to manage complex device lifecycles. By automating key transitions from one stage in the service lifecycle to another, users can design a near zero-touch provisioning flow, which ultimately results in lower costs, increased reliability, and the ability to scale quickly. For example, Control Center provides a zero-touch activation process that automatically puts a device in service and begins billing as soon as the device powers on—which means users won’t end up with connectivity charges for devices in inventory or in transit to their final destination.

You shall not pass!

Getting back to security: Control Center contains a number of security features that address login security, fraud prevention, and more.

It is also possible to monitor device IMEIs and other credentials by IMEI tracking and creating IMEA whitelists, so each time a device requests a data session, the user can validate the device IMEI against an approved list. Furthermore, audit trails provide visibility into user activity and automated tasks.

And of course, Cisco has taken steps to ensure the security of our platform infrastructure as a whole. with the help of compliance program, network security, user access monitoring, and more.

Simple and convenient

The Cisco IoT platform is user-friendly and easy-to-understand. Although Control Center offers a large amount of information about user’s devices and how they are functioning in the world, it’s actually is easy to use.

Users can access real-time device information by monitoring cycle-to-date usage, viewing SIM state and rate plan, finding the device APN, MSISDN, ICCID and all kinds of abbreviations, as well as modify device attributes.

To make it even easier, Control Center provides an application programming interface that allows you to access and edit data in from an external application. Using the API, it is possible to perform many of the same tasks that can be handled through Control Center’s web interface, including managing devices, monitoring data, and assigning a rate plan to a device in order to save costs, etc.

Automation

Automation rules enable users to ensure service reliability, manage costs, and scale business faster by programmatically controlling devices—without doing any programming. Users can quickly and easily set custom rules right from the Control Center user interface, instructing the platform to monitor devices and, if specific triggers occur, take appropriate action instantly and automatically.

For each rule trigger, it is possible to define a specific event that will cause Control Center to execute a particular action. Automation allows you to monitor changes to the device rate plan and take action when a device fails to provide the correct username or password during an attempt to access network services, as well as take action when a device completes or nears the end of its subscription. You can also oversee usage and the connection behavior of your devices and act based on usage thresholds or connection patterns.

Your reliable partner

Connectivity is at the heart of everything that we do at Tele2 IoT. In cooperation with Cisco, we help you to  manage and control your deployment in a smart, efficient, cost effective, and secure way.

IoT Control Center is able to ensure operation of devices without any downtime, while the availability of Tele2 IoT experts 24/7 allows you to put a number of technical issues aside, devoting more time to improving smart technologies and analyzing the data received.

“When wireless technology reaches its peak of development, all the things will become part of one whole. It will be possible to control them with the help of a device that will fit in a vest pocket.” This quote, from Nikola Tesla, was said almost a century ago. However, neither the inventor himself or his contemporaries knew that he was describing one of the most important concepts of future technological development — the Internet of things.

The axiom formulated by science fiction writers that big discoveries often seem boring to those far from science definitely does not work in the case of the Internet of things. IoT is already being used in so many exciting technologies that it is not always easy to believe that these technologies are real. Nevertheless, the technology has seriously and for a long time been anchored in almost all areas of our life. It is worth believing the experts: the future has already arrived – you just need to look around you.

If you have any questions or comments about Cisco IoT Control Center (2CONTROL) – or anything at all, please get in touch.

Karina Varte
Key Account Manager
Tele2 IoT