In the ever-evolving world of the IoT, good ideas are cropping up everywhere, including in the farms and fields where NetIrrigate was established in 2008 bringing practical solutions to the agricultural equipment industry.
NetIrrigate has sensors and mobile applications deployed across America and in countries including Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil, Australia and more, making it possible for farmers to monitor, manage and secure irrigation systems using mobile applications that send alerts and otherwise help capture and report on status “in the field.”
The company expanded beyond IoT irrigation solutions into other agricultural applications, and in the process developed patented technology for sensors whose battery life can last up to five years or more (for a solution that sent alerts to reduce the theft of copper from center pivot irrigation systems).
“Our dealers loved it,” said Founder and CEO of NetIrrigate, Edward DeSalle. “Easy to install, the device can be set up in 15 minutes or less – then registered to a mobile app that can be downloaded for free from app stores.”
The success of this one very practical solution lead to the birth of a new, related company, xProxy. “We know a lot about agricultural IoT and are a leader in this industry, but we and other people began to see massive applications in many other industries, so we decided to bring this same, proven hardware and software solution to broader markets.”
DeSalle is bringing xProxy to market to entrepreneurs who wish to “bootstrap” off it and create businesses around bringing the system to verticals whether in the municipal government, facilities management, fleet management, factory optimization or any other verticals who can benefit from simplified, scalable IoT solutions.
“We’re now licensing the technology with a complete, turn-key hardware and software API stack which encapsulates real time notifications,” De Salle explained in a recent interview. “We’ve already been working with third parties outside the agriculture industry and based on their successes we realized we had developed something with broad appeal, and can save other entrepreneurs time to market and the expense and risk of doing their own R&D. They can simply white label the xProxy components, and sell into industries they serve.”
DeSalle’s team is also working to solve related issues they see coming rapidly down the pike – the Inundation of Things. “When your coffee maker, refrigerator, car and thermostat are texting you more than your friends and family, you know you have a situation,” DeSalle said. “We’ve architected our messaging software to give end users an opt-in, permissions based model, so they decide when they want their machines to alert them based on policies they or their service providers set up,” he explained. “This problem, especially in IoT business applications, is only going to get bigger, and at IoT Evolution next week we’ll be sharing more about a new gateway we’re rolling out as an important part of xProxy’s approach.”
DeSalle also has his sights set on contributing to the discussion on improving connectivity for IoT deployments, including those in rural areas. “Cellular has worked really well for us but can be expensive and spotty particularly in rural locations when there are bandwidth requirements, and Satellite – even more so. The more Internet access we can put into rural America and rural communities around the world, not only will citizens have more access to information and services, they will be able to benefit from the tremendous potential of IoT deployments.”
xProxy will be exhibiting at IoT Evolution Conference and Exp in Las Vegas, space 522.