Harman’s great glowing gateway

Gateways are the unsung heroes in the internet of things. Everyone gives credit to the cloud and to the sensors or actuators, but much less attention is paid to these intermediary devices that sit between the cloud and the so-called edge. The gateway is where the complicated data normalization, real-time analytics and even device communication takes place.

Big name companies are trying to own this chunk of the IoT ecosystem. Dell, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, HP Enterprise and dozens of smaller companies all have products aimed at the gateway.

And now there is one more. Harman, the sound and automotive technology provider, has also developed a gateway.

Andrew Till, VP for technology, partnerships & new solutions at Harman Connected Services, describes the product as something a consumer would be “proud to have on his dining room table.”

He’s right. This gateway is not the typical ruggedized box for a factory floor, but is instead designed for IT or facilities staff at corporate offices. The box handles device management and configuration, real-time data processing and multiple connectivity standards.

Harman, which is in the middle of being acquired by Samsung, built the gateway because its customers demanded it. Till didn’t say how the box would fit into Samsung’s existing IoT strategy, but I can see it slotting right in with the ARTIK Cloud and ARTIK modules.