News

Startup Ties Mobile Apps to IoT Devices

• By David Ramel
• May 14, 2015

Less than a year old, startup MODE Inc. has unveiled a cloud platform designed to help mobile developers connect their apps to Internet of Things (IoT) devices spewing out high-volume data.

"The platform provides an intuitive cloud API for devices, mobile clients and application servers," the company said in a statement this week. "IoT developers can utilize MODE as the back-end infrastructure throughout the entire development cycle, from prototyping to product launch."

To help with that mission, the company has secured $775,000 in financing it will use to begin serving high-volume traffic on its platform.

While that platform takes care of many of the details typically found in Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service (MBaaS) offerings -- such as managing users and devices and access control -- it also features IoT-specific capabilities, such as support for push technologies to help remotely control devices even if they're located behind firewalls. It also lets companies integrate their application servers to handle mobile user commands and react to machine-generated data.

As an example case study project, the company walks through the scenario of a company manufacturing smart light bulbs that can be controlled from a mobile app. The MODE system would allow multiple family members to control the bulbs, even though the people might be accessing the firewall-protected bulbs remotely.

Developers can control IoT projects through a Web console and associated tools such as a project configuration manager, device inventory manager, database tool, device monitoring tool, statistics dashboard and an API Explorer.

"Companies that use MODE can focus on the things that matter the most to their users, like hardware manufacturing and mobile UX," the company said in a statement. "With IoT startups in mind, including those with Kickstarter and IndieGoGo projects, MODE has implemented free prototyping on its platform in addition to a flexible pricing structure for mass production."

The San Mateo, Calif.-based MODE was founded last summer by former Google Inc. engineer Gaku Ueda and former Yahoo Inc. engineer Ethan Kan.