Arrow Exec: IoT Partnership With Intel Can Make Data The New Gold For Solution Providers

Arrow Electronics wants to help solution providers make sense of a complex, rapidly evolving Internet of Things landscape through its strategic partnership with Intel.

Wayne Dragon, IoT technical marketing manager at the Centennial, Colo.-based distributor, said Arrow is squarely focused on aggregating vertically driven Intel offerings that can reach the market quickly and create actionable insight that customers can monetize.

"How am I going to get connected in retail, environment, medical, agriculture, transportation?" Dragon asked during the IoTConnex virtual conference, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company. "This is what it comes down to: Our customers are looking for comprehensive solutions enabling businesses to deploy, manage, monitor, analyze and monetize these securely connected devices through an entire life cycle globally."

[Related: Arrow Snags $350M In Channel Business From Competitors, Lands Dell Enterprise Portfolio]

Implementing an IoT practice presents a number of challenges for solution providers, such as managing the various device protocols collected at the edge and then funneled through gateways and into data platforms. These smart devices might send information over Wi-Fi, cellular networks, BLE or LoRa.

Arrow Connect, a cloud-based data ingestion platform, can help partners clear that hurdle by interpreting those disparate data sources, Dragon said. The distributor also offers end-of-life asset disposition that can sanitize smart devices of any data they have collected.

Arrow is an associate member of the Intel IoT Solutions Alliance, which gives the distributor access to collaboration opportunities with fellow Alliance members.

"We have that expertise across our customer base," Dragon said. "They might be OEMs or enterprises developing things at the edge that are getting connected. They may be enterprise-level solutions. We have integrated software vendors. We also work closely with many systems integrators and VARs to provide solutions for our customers and their customers to be able to take to market."

Arrow's IoT solutions delivery includes building management systems that can consolidate data collected from various sources such as HVAC, climate monitoring, temperature control and lighting systems.

The distributor also supplies a portable power system, built in collaboration with Dell and V5 Systems, that can power hardware in outdoor environments via solar panels. Dragon said the power system allows for a number of use cases, including security given its ability to power cameras and acoustic gun-shot detection on-site.

"Portable power at the edge to a gateway without the need to dig or trench," Dragon said. "If you can avoid digging, trenching, permitting and all those things that delay, and have a solution that's re-deployable, that gives you a lot of strength."

Arrow also supports a retail offering that helps businesses manage a system of sensors over radio frequency identification – powered over Ethernet – that relay inventory management data back to a central hub.

Dragon noted that Arrow deployed the building management solution at its own Phoenix data center, using smart devices to track how each of the distributor's business units consumed power, how much each required and how much each should be built. That allowed the company to make data-driven decisions that improved its energy efficiency.

"There's so many solutions that are coming," Dragon said. "You're going to see more and more solutions in the market."