IoT has won its place in our everyday life and is widely used in manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, utilities, and other spheres. Industry leaders such as Weinman, Cardo Systems, Anoto, Locinox, and many others have chosen to use it as a competitive advantage. And such an appetite for IoT has brought about a real shortage of IoT experts.
According to the survey, led by Microsoft, 47% of businesses state that they do not have enough skilled professionals to implement their IoT solutions. What’s more, 20% of companies desist from IoT implementation because of its complexity.
However, due to the benefits that IoT solutions offer, the majority of companies choose to exert efforts and hire the dedicated IoT software development team. So, why should you hire IoT developers, where to find the best IoT professionals, and how to build a dedicated IoT software development team? Let’s find out.
Why outsource IoT development?
There are three options for building a strong IoT software development team:
-
Hiring IoT developers in-house;
-
Outsourcing IoT development to another country;
-
Combining these two options.
Each of the options is suitable for different purposes as well as different business needs. The first one - building a team internally can pose a striking challenge to the company that has no prior experience in IoT software development. As a result, offshoring IoT development or complementing your in-house team with a dedicated IoT software development team are more common and efficient options.
Besides, the talent shortage is a pressing issue in the Western world and in particular in the UK. Forbes states that almost half of the employers face recruitment difficulties. As a result, to find enough engineering resources, including IoT developers, American and British companies venture into Ukraine, Poland, and other countries of Eastern Europe.
Outsourcing IoT projects is the most cost-effective variant the vast majority of companies opt for. The vendors that offer dedicated IoT software development team services typically have an extensive portfolio of successful IoT projects and know how to handle IoT-related risks. Also, outsourcing IoT development minimizes the delivery time of your product, so no wonder why so many companies go for this scenario.
If you want to learn more about building a robust embedded team - check out the article. You will find information on how to choose a reliable embedded software development partner, successful cases of embedded solutions implementation, and the state of embedded systems market.
Where to look for the best IoT developers?
IoT outsourcing is no different from other IT services outsourcing. This means that there are three most common outsourcing destinations: Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. In this article, we will focus on the Eastern European market, as it offers a wide range of benefits, such as a vast talent pool and a high price-quality ratio.
IoT developers in Eastern Europe
This region has taken leading positions in the global IT outsourcing market for two decades now. It is no wonder that the talent pool of Eastern Europe offers a wide range of skills, including IoT, Big Data, Cloud, and more. What's more, LinkedIn lists over 170,000 C/C++ developers in the region.
SourceSeek market report states that the most spread technologies in the region are JavaScript and LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python). An extensive talent pool, a high level of innovation adoption, and ease of doing business make the region an attractive outsourcing destination for worldwide industry leaders.
There are two countries with the most significant number of software development professionals, namely Ukraine and Poland. Let’s dive in and scrutinize the state of IoT development market there.
IoT developers in Ukraine
The country houses over 190,000 software engineers, including 10,000 C/C++ developers. Moreover, the country is home to 1600 software development vendors, which is the biggest figure in the region. 13 Ukrainian companies were recognized by IAOP as the best outsourcing providers in the world.
Ukrainian IoT developers have strong technical skills and knowledge of IoT-friendly programming languages: low-level languages such as Assembly, C, and C++, and high-level programming languages for application development, such as JavaScript, Java, Python, and Node.JS.
Moreover, the country’s strong STEM education ensures constant talent inflow. What's more, Ukrainian universities develop new studying programs such as the Internet of Things bachelor’s program and the Artificial Intelligence program at Lviv Polytechnic, Data Science, and Cybersecurity program at Lviv University, and many more.
Such a background creates favorable conditions for IoT development in Ukraine. So, no wonder that many companies opt for hiring a dedicated IoT software development team from Ukraine. Ukrainian IoT developers have sufficient tech skills, programming background, and an impressive track record of IoT projects.
IoT developers in Poland
Poland is the country with a favorable business environment and a stable economical state due to its membership in the EU. The country boasts strong IT infrastructure, due to years of experience in the global IT market. What’s more, the country is known for its proximity to Western Europe, which makes it an attractive outsourcing destination.
Poland is home to over 500 software development vendors, according to Clutch. However, only eleven among them are big companies that offer IoT solutions development.
The country boasts an extensive talent pool of highly skilled professionals. According to Skillvalue, they have made it to the top 5 of the best developers in the world. This is one more factor that attracts foreign businesses to Poland.
Poland is developing the domestic IoT market by establishing the centralized AI strategy and the monitoring activity of the state of IoT in the country. This fact creates new employment opportunities for 5000+ IoT developers in Poland. However, the development of the domestic market hampers the outsourcing market.
How to build a dedicated IoT software development team
The composition of your dedicated IoT software development team may vary depending on your business needs. However, your IoT developers should be able to guide you through every delivery stage, from prototyping to development to post-delivery support. A core team for a full-cycle IoT-related project with C++ could consist of two Senior C++ Software Developers, a Middle UI/UX Designer, a Senior DevOps, and two Middle QA specialists. You may also need expertise in Mobile App Development, Cloud, Big Data and BI, and Security.
There are a number of critical requirements your potential IoT development partner should correspond to. When hiring the dedicated IoT software development team, you need to pay close attention to a wide range of aspects.
How to choose a provider?
There are three critical rules you should stick to while looking for a reliable IoT solutions provider. Pay attention to not only the expertise and track record of the vendor but also the technical skills of your potential dedicated IoT software development team.
-
Check the portfolio of IoT related projects of your potential vendor;
A reliable and experienced IoT solutions provider should have a solid portfolio of successful IoT-related projects in different industries as well as the client reviews on the value delivered. You can use Clutch.co to find clients’ reviews and testimonials to make sure that the provider is trustworthy and has enough expertise.
-
Decide on the tech skills your dedicated IoT software development needs to have to realize your ideas;
The tech stack of IoT developers typically depends on product complexity and specific requirements. However, IoT developers need to have experience in working with algorithms, design patterns, data structures, control systems. Also, they must have a deep understanding of sensors and wireless communication.
Qualified IoT developers should be familiar with networking technologies such as Ethernet, TCP/IP and have a solid understanding of the different types of memory (RAM, ROM, and Flash), microprocessors & microcontroller architectures, and different types of protocols, as well as expertise in General-Purpose Operating Systems (GPOS) and Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS).
Some projects may call for a deep understanding of Auto Cad systems, GPS development, and more.
As far as programming languages are concerned, advanced knowledge of C or C++ is often critical in IoT-related projects. Apart from that, some projects may call for knowledge of Java, .NET, Python, Javascript, Node.JS.
-
Choose the professionals that have substantial knowledge of embedded systems and hardware capabilities
IoT and embedded software engineers are aimed at exploiting the capabilities of the hardware to bring the maximum benefit for the end-user. That is the reason why the IoT developers have to possess solid knowledge of hardware they work with. IoT-related projects can call for different computing or data processing power, memory size, etc. Skilled IoT developers should be able to help you optimize a target system, providing the ideal configuration of form factors, CPU, memory, storage, and I/Os.
Why does IoT security matter?
Despite all the benefits IoT brings, the development of the IoT may pose certain security challenges. If you want to implement IoT into your business, you have to pay special attention to the security rules in order to be ready to tackle possible threats. And you need to find a vendor with extensive expertise in IoT security
To learn more about the key security issues and ways to overcome them with a reliable partner by your side - read the article.
Success stories of outsourcing IoT development
Many global industry leaders have chosen to partner with Eastern European software development vendors to implement embedded systems and IoT solutions. Here are a few cases of their successful cooperation with industry leaders.
-
Weinmann
This is a German healthcare company that develops ventilation and defibrillation solutions for emergency medicine. In partnership with a dedicated IoT software development team from N-iX, a leading Ukrainian software development vendor, they have developed MEDUCORE Standard², a defibrillator with monitoring functions.
N-iX IoT developers have been working on embedded Linux firmware development with C++ using the Qt framework. They have improved the client’s development capabilities as well as contributed to the successful development of the product.
-
Locinox
This Belgium-based manufacturer develops innovative outdoor access control products. The company has partnered with N-iX to design and develop secure outdoor hardware for fences and gates from the ground up.
N-iX professionals have worked on prototype design, firmware development, and hardware development, leveraging their IoT-related and embedded software development skills.
-
Anoto
This Sweden-based digital writing company engineers and develops mobile data capture solutions for handwriting. N-iX specialists took part in the development of a range of Anoto products. For instance, Forms Design Tool, a plugin for Adobe Acrobat Professional that enables generating a paper layout with the Anoto pattern; penDirector, an application that controls and manages digital pen behavior and allows synchronization of data between a PC and a digital pen through Bluetooth and USB; and other products.
Why choose N-iX as your IoT development partner?
-
N-iX has a large pool of experts in such IoT-friendly programming languages such as C/C++, Java, Go, Python, JavaScript, and more.
-
We have helped leading businesses in telecom, manufacturing, transportation, energy, and more to implement effective IoT systems.
-
N-iX has long-standing expertise in DevOps, Cloud, Big Data, Data Science, Ui/UX, etc.
-
Our IoT engineers maintain the best practices of IoT security.
-
We accompany you at every delivery stage, from prototype to delivery and support.
WRAP-UP
The number of IoT-connected devices is going up each year. IoT is now widely used in both consumer and industrial sectors, such as manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and others. As a result, the demand for strong IoT developers also rises significantly.
Moreover, there are lots of IoT security issues to handle at every stage of product development. So, if you need to augment your expertise and development capability, feel free to contact our experts, and we will be glad to help you.
