Gartner defines managed IoT connectivity services as a market that enables connectivity, data collection and analysis, and additional decision services that are necessary for connected solutions. For large organizations, managed IoT connectivity services are normally delivered fully managed, including dedicated help desk and project and service management capabilities. For midsize and small organizations, they are frequently delivered as a self-service provided through an IoT connectivity management portal, including Level 2 and Level 3 back-office support. Connections can use various technologies. Connections can be cellular (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE and 5G); satellite, low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks (3GPP and non-3GPP); and managed field-area networks (FANs). Public hot spots are not part of the scope. Managed IoT connectivity services also enable businesses and IoT providers to collect, analyze and interact with data streams, thus providing businesses with the ability to monitor, manage and control (manually and through automation) assets associated with business processes. This includes connected consumer, commercial or industrial products. Additionally, managed IoT connectivity services may encompass integrated and managed IT infrastructure and systems, operational technology (OT) infrastructure and systems, software, network services (connectivity), and IT services. Managed IoT connectivity services are a solution element within the broader solution sets of digital businesses and OT systems in enterprise environments.
MDMS products are IT components of the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The core MDMS is responsible for cleansing, calculating and providing the data persistence of commodity consumption data. Additional MDMS capabilities now include disseminating metered consumption data for internal as well as external use. Meter data can be used to support billing, as well as analytics use cases, such as load profiling, consumption tracking, forecasting, asset loading and revenue protection, including the detection of tampering, theft or leakage. Beyond supporting internal utility needs, MDMS plays a role in open consumption data by supporting the sharing of consumption data with customers, partners, market operators and regulators. In most markets, data sharing is done with standardized data exchange formats.