What makes Connhex better than custom projects

When planning for an IoT solution, many companies consider building in-house or contracting a custom software development project: it's the "make" side of the classical make-or-buy dilemma. These projects typically involve assembling a few¹ open-source libraries, plus writing some custom code to glue it all together.

This page describes how building on top of Connhex is different and why you should choose it over developing a custom solution.

Connhex vs Custom projects: what are the differences?​

Robustness, validation and compliance​

By choosing Connhex, you are getting an extensively tested and validated solution. Its robustness is the result of designing for scalability, consistently refining and handling edge cases that are present in every product portfolio.

Another critical aspect is compliance. Whether your solution is an off-the-shelf product or a custom project, it is subject to the same regulations. Connhex gives you an advantage in handling compliance: look at how it helps you with GDPR, for example.

Time to market​

Connhex drastically cuts your time-to-market. You won't need to develop from scratch neither data collection infrastructure nor any additional built-in service.

This applies both to cloud services and edge components. Connhex includes a powerful edge agent, responsible for managing any aspect of secure connection and data exchange - plus additional functionalities provided as addons. And it covers microcontrollers too!

And, even more important, when building your own solution from scratch, you'll also need to budget for testing and validation. On the other hand, Connhex is already supporting many production deployments.

Future-proofing​

Specifications are always evolving: this is an aspect of any IoT project² that's too often overlooked.

One of the biggest benefits of using Connhex is it has been developed, tested and used over a wide array of industrial IoT use cases. By using Connhex as a foundation for your IoT product, you can be confident it will be as suitable for your current requirements as your future ones.

Internal tools​

A complete IoT solution includes both apps for end users and internal tools. You can't get away with just building user-facing applications: internal tools are essential for customer support, manufacturing, business intelligence, disaster recovery, updates, product recalls, billing, ...

If you decide to build in-house, you need to budget for internal tooling too. On the other hand, Connhex includes Connhex Control out of the box. This means you won't need to develop yourself any additional feature dedicated to:

• device management
• users and permissions management
• manufacturing-cloud interaction
• secure device connection for troubleshooting
• ...

Connhex also includes complete monitoring for all cloud services, with automated notifications in case of unexpected events.

Custom is welcomed in Connhex​

Your choice shouldn't be framed as choosing Connhex or a dedicated solution: the great thing about Connhex is that tailored software is a first class citizen.

Forget the typical white-label IoT platform approach, where you are given the opportunity to choose your logo and color scheme ³. By design, you're completely free to choose the degree of customization needed: from just providing a tailored user interface, to only using a single Connhex Cloud service.

And if you value having a single partner building and maintaining your entire solution, we are definitely available for it.

Costs​

Building a Connhex replacement for a single IoT project doesn't make sense from a cost perspective. If you can get away with fewer features, or have lower device volumes to handle, it might be a viable option: just be aware of the fact that developing your own solution usually requires a high initial cost, plus recurring maintenance and support fees.

With Connhex, updates are always included: as we keep improving it, you'll be getting the latest functionality. If you go the custom build route, instead, additional developments are quoted separately.

When is a Custom project superior to Connhex?​

There are situations where developing a custom project compares favourably over Connhex, of course. As a rough reference, a custom project might better suit your needs if the IoT component is a secondary aspect of your solution.

Another situation where a custom solution might be a better fit than Connhex is one where you don't plan to offer any of the functionalities included with Connhex Cloud, or use Connhex AI's capabilities.

Why you should choose Connhex over building a custom IoT platform​

Connhex is a complete industrial IoT suite, extensively tested and validated in the field. It will be a much more effective solution than building your own IoT platform if you:

• are a device manufacturer, looking to connect at least 1000 devices to your own IoT platform
• value security, reliability, scalability and robustness
• want to reduce your time to market without giving up any flexibility
• are looking for a solution that can satisfy both your current and future needs, since your requirements will probably evolve over time
• need to provide your users with specific applications, not just rebranded white-label user interfaces
• don't want to invest additional resources in developing internal tools
• are looking for a cost-effective solution, allowing you to explore different monetization strategies

Ready to start connecting your devices? Go here to explore Connhex configurations. Still unsure? You can always reach out for any additional information: we'll be glad to hear from you!