After more than 15 years of providing IoT cloud solutions, LI-COR recognized the need for a modern, scalable framework that would let them focus on delivering value rather than rebuilding core infrastructure. We spoke with Erich Roth, Senior Director of Product Development, Software at LI-COR about the decision to migrate to Davra and the impact this has had on the business.

“Davra’s robust microservices architecture, advanced role-based access control, powerful dashboards, and integrated GenAI capabilities have dramatically enhanced our user experience and accelerated our time to market.”

Outcomes

• Modernized digital offering by migrating legacy cloud platform to Davra.
• Improved responsiveness, performance, & feature set of product.
• Accelerated AI, predictive maintenance, & Earth Observation roadmap.
• Enabled global expansion with multiple cloud instances supported by Davra.
• Allowed the team to focus on delivering value for their customers.

About LI-COR

LI-COR is a leading manufacturer of high-end environmental monitoring equipment, specializing in trace gas monitoring, greenhouse gas fluxes, and plant health assessment. Headquarted in Nebraska, the company employs over 330 people worldwide, and serves customers in more than 100 countries.

In 2024, LI-COR acquired Onset and its HOBO brand of cloud-connected data loggers, extending its capabilities in remote environmental monitoring across agriculture, underwater research, indoor monitoring, and pharmaceutical cold chain.

The Challenge

HOBO data loggers support both cellular and BLE technologies allowing users to view their data via desktop, mobile, and cloud applications.

As LI-COR's user base and device footprint grew, so did the complexity and demands of managing their cloud infrastructure. After building a successful cloud infrastructure over many years, it was now becoming a burden.

Erich Roth, now Senior Director of Product Development, Software at LI-COR and 22-year veteran at Onset, explained the problem.

“We were spending a tremendous amount of time on infrastructure and not nearly as much time on value added features for our customers.”

The Solution

LI-COR sought an IoT framework like Davra that offered out-of-the-box infrastructure for data warehousing and APIs, that would allow them to focus on application development and rely on the vendor for platform maintenance.

They evaluated several IoT frameworks, including several hyperscalers and more focused companies like Davra. They hired an external contractor for an unbiased proof of concept and evaluation, which recommended Davra based on flexibility and ease of deployment.

As a result, LI-COR partnered with Davra to modernize its offering by migrating its legacy cloud platform to Davra.

The Davra Platform

The Davra Platform (opens new window) is an AI-powered IoT platform for industrial applications. Built for equipment manufacturers and OEMs, the platform provides everything needed to launch connected solutions quickly, securely, and at scale.

Devices, data, connectivity, digital twins, security, and applications are all managed and maintained to the highest standards, enabling companies like LI-COR to focus on delivering value for their customers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

LI-COR’s solution was deployed on Davra's public cloud hosted by AWS, providing LI-COR with a secure and high-performing infrastructure backbone.

Davra is designed to be fully flexible and can be deployed in any hosting environment—including public or private cloud, hybrid, or on-premise—without loss of functionality. For public cloud deployments, Davra partners with Amazon Web Services (AWS), leveraging multi-node clusters hosted on Amazon EC2 instances.

As an AWS Qualified Software Partner, Davra adheres to the AWS Well-Architected Framework, ensuring that the platform is built on the pillars of security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, and operational excellence.

The Benefits

The impact of this collaboration quickly became clear. Migrating to Davra not only lifted the burden of managing their cloud infrastructure, it also improved the quality of their end product, accelerated their innovation roadmap, and opened up new opportunities for geographic expansion.

Strategic Expansion

LI-COR made the strategic decision to not only consolidate everything on Davra but to scale it across additional product lines and global regions, positioning it as a cornerstone of their expanded IoT strategy.

Now branded as LI-COR Cloud, the unified platform supports both direct-to-cloud and BLE-connected devices. It functions as a central data hub with visualizations, customizable dashboards, alerts for out-of-range conditions and device faults, data export, automated reports, API access, and third-party integrations.

The service currently supports over 15,000 devices across 8,000 customers, with rapid expansion planned across new product lines and regions.

A Better Product

Erich views the most significant benefit of migrating to Davra as the overall improvement in product quality.

“The application is far more performant from the standpoint of data ingestion and overall user experience” he explains. “It has a cleaner look. It is more responsive, and it features a better overall user experience than the legacy system.”

Behind the scenes, Davra’s pre-built infrastructure for data storage, API access, and role-based access control has dramatically accelerated development cycles and reduced complexity. This shift has allowed the LI-COR software team to focus on innovation and customer-facing features, rather than infrastructure upkeep.

“Having Davra host the application has also benefited the DevOps team, as they don’t need to constantly monitor every aspect of system performance, as Davra takes care of it,” Erich adds.

By leveraging much of the infrastructure Davra offers, the team can now prioritize delivering value through continuous improvement and faster feature releases, strengthening the sustainability of their SaaS revenue model.

Accelerating LI-COR’s Innovation Roadmap

LI-COR now plans to develop market-specific applications while leveraging Davra’s AI capabilities for predictive analytics, failure analysis, and anomaly detection.

Erich emphasized the strong alignment between Davra’s technology roadmap and LI-COR’s future direction, particularly in AI and earth observation integration.

“As our roadmap evolves, we don’t have to develop everything ourselves—Davra can assist, and we can immediately take advantage,” he noted.

Davra’s ability to deploy seamlessly across diverse environments is also driving value. LI-COR is now entering markets in Asia using public and private cloud instances supported by Davra, unlocking new regional opportunities.

More than a vendor

LI-COR sees its relationship with Davra as a true partnership, built on shared goals and close collaboration—far beyond a traditional vendor-customer model.

Erich emphasized Davra’s deep understanding of their needs and their proactive, solutions-focused mindset.

“They are a talented and knowledgeable team. They know the platform, they know the industry, and they really understand our use cases. When we say, ‘we need to do X,’ they respond, ‘We get it—here’s how we’ll help you do that.’”

He added, “The Davra team has been an exceptional partner throughout. We now consider them a critical strategic ally in delivering a market-leading IoT cloud experience to our customers.”

Conclusion

By migrating to Davra, LI-COR has transformed its IoT strategy—modernizing its digital platform, accelerating innovation, and expanding into new markets with greater agility. The partnership has allowed LI-COR to shift focus from infrastructure maintenance to delivering real value through advanced features, AI-driven insights, and a vastly improved customer experience.

Ready to modernize your IoT offering?

Talk to a Davra IoT expert and discover how our platform can help you scale, innovate, and deliver smart connected solutions faster. Visit davra.com/contact (opens new window) today to get started.