In the first of our Industrial Internet of Things Platform Pillars, we will be discussing IoT device management—a critical component for scaling, securing, and optimizing connected systems. The number of connected devices to the internet was around 20 billion at the end of 2018, and if predictions play out, there will be over 40 billion connected devices by 2025. But how exactly are these devices connected, secured, managed, and integrated into their environments and on their respective platforms?

Key Elements of IoT Device Management

According to Gartner:

"Device Management: Software that enables manual and automated tasks to create, provision, configure, troubleshoot and manage fleets of IoT devices and gateways remotely, in bulk or individually, and securely as required by industry standards and regulatory mandates.”

At its core, a robust IoT device management platform empowers organizations to oversee the full lifecycle of IoT devices—supporting provisioning, monitoring, diagnostics, configuration, firmware updates, and remote device management—all while maintaining high standards of device security and regulatory compliance.

Building a platform with powerful device and gateway management capabilities that provide flexible edge computing and cloud service deployment models, IPN, VPN, firewall protection, and access control, is essential to managing devices at scale. Platforms must also be multi-tenant, fault-tolerant, and scalable.

In order for device management to be successfully incorporated into your IIoT platform (opens new window), it must fulfill four core functions: provisioning (opens new window) and authentication, configuration and control, monitoring and diagnostics, and software maintenance and updates. These last three must run in a continuous feedback loop to ensure reliability and performance.

Provisioning and Authentication

In order to securely integrate a device into your IoT application or platform, you must first establish and verify the identity of that device. Device authentication ensures the system is interacting with a legitimate, uncompromised device—a key factor in upholding device security.

Once authenticated, the device proceeds to provisioning. On the Davra platform (opens new window), you can register devices in bulk, manage them centrally, and assign workflows with ease. Devices are embedded with secure keys or certificates that validate their authenticity and point them to the appropriate cloud service for enrollment.

Configuration and Control

All devices begin with a basic configuration, but depending on their function—from temperature sensors and cameras to industrial robots and LoRa converters—custom configuration is often required. Through our platform, you can easily configure device attributes, monitor labels, and enable new capabilities.

Access control is critical in this stage, ensuring only authorized users or applications can adjust device configurations. Remote commands allow you to reset devices, fix bugs, and roll out new features without physical intervention, a core function of remote device management.

By remotely controlling configurations and ensuring updates are securely applied, device management enables organizations to scale while reducing manual intervention and system downtime.

Monitoring and Diagnostics

The performance of each device in your IoT application impacts overall system health. A failing sensor or gateway can affect everything from analytics to operational efficiency. That’s why monitoring and early diagnostics are essential.

Davra’s platform supports real-time monitoring of device activity, enabling predictive (opens new window) and anomaly detection (opens new window) models. Digital fingerprinting and telemetry data analysis help identify when a device behaves abnormally. Once detected, our system can trigger prescriptive or diagnostic workflows that alert the appropriate teams—regardless of timezone—through integrated ticketing and messaging tools.

In complex environments, this functionality is particularly powerful when combined with edge computing, where processing is distributed closer to the devices themselves, ensuring timely insights and responses even without a constant cloud connection.

Software Maintenance and Updates

Managing updates is more than pushing out new features—it's a cornerstone of device security. Devices need ongoing software maintenance to patch vulnerabilities, improve functionality, and maintain compliance with industry regulations.

At Davra, we implement reliable workflows that maintain persistent connections with the remote device during updates, minimizing operational disruption. Our system supports updates to either the platform firmware or only the application layer, allowing for bandwidth-efficient, targeted changes.

With thousands—or even millions—of devices deployed across geographies, centralized remote device management tools are vital. Davra provides a secure and scalable solution for automating update cycles while ensuring business continuity.

Why Choose Davra?

Our industrial IoT platform enables you to securely onboard, organize, monitor, and manage your entire IoT device ecosystem from one system. Whether you're deploying edge devices in manufacturing (opens new window), remote sensors in utilities, or tracking equipment across transportation (opens new window) networks, our platform adapts to your needs.

Davra’s solution includes:

• Integrated edge computing and cloud service models
• Customizable workflows for provisioning, access, and updates
• Real-time analytics and anomaly detection
• Built-in access control for secure operations
• Application enablement tools to build your own IoT applications

Our platform empowers you to prototype, test, and deploy complete solutions across numerous verticals, all while maintaining operational agility and security.

In our next Pillar, we’ll be discussing Application Enablement and Management and how it complements IoT Device Management in building scalable, secure IIoT ecosystems.

If you’d like to learn more about how Davra delivers secure and efficient IoT device management, check out our webinars (opens new window) or reach out for a platform demo.