Yesterday at IoT World, we jointly announced some things along with the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC). I want to make everyone aware of the announcement and what it means for SmartThings.

From the very beginning at SmartThings, we recognized that there was a component of our platform that was essentially missing–that of a stand-alone Device Cloud. A Device Cloud is a Platform-as-a-Service offering that allows device manufacturers to easily create a connected device and companion mobile application (iOS, Android, etc) without having to actually build and maintain the Cloud components of that solution. It allows the device maker to focus on the value-added device and software, but not the plumbing that brings it together.

Yesterday at IoT World, we announced SmartThings Open Cloud: A Device Cloud and Data Broker solution that will fill this gap and allow us to provide this kind of offering to device manufacturers. The Open Cloud offering is powered by a Samsung Platform called SAMI.

This offering is a companion to a Samsung line of IoT modules called ARTIK, which was also announced yesterday. These modules are focused on device manufacturers and allow a manufacturer to easily create a connected device by using one of a line of ARTIK modules. The modules range from really small modules with Zigbee/Thread/BLE (which can connect to our hub) to bigger and more powerful modules that have lots of processing capacity and WiFi connectivity. The modules that have WiFi connectivity will also include an SDK for connecting the module to SmartThings Open Cloud. The combination of ARTIK + SmartThings Open Cloud provides the necessary hardware, software, and services for device makers to build connected devices easily without having to build and operate the entire stack.

This is a significant opportunity for SmartThings to stake out an entirely new territory for the Internet of Things, and an opportunity to quickly expand our ecosystem and our reach as a company. Samsung SSIC recognized that the SmartThings brand is the place where all of the Samsung IoT offerings should consolidate, and has worked with us over the past couple of weeks to ready this announcement.

Jeff Hagins,

SmartThings co-founder and CTO