Hardware Vendors

The Internet of Things is this year's hottest market, and many vendors are striving to stay at the forefront with cutting-edge products. The components at the back end of IoT offerings -- including low-power sensors, embedded gateways, modems, routers and semiconductors -- are critical to IoT operability and interoperability.

The opportunity is high in the hardware market for vendors. While larger companies such as Cisco Systems, Dell Technol­ogies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Intel are making deep investments in IoT products, new startups such as Samsara and others are doubling down on the space as well.

Following are 20 companies with the coolest IoT back-end hardware.