Deployment Architecture Guide
This guide introduces the components and practices that make up ThingWorx deployments. It describes the basic components found in every ThingWorx environment and discusses common deployment concerns and challenges.
The guide also provides common ThingWorx reference architectures to consider when planning a ThingWorx deployment.
Challenges
Platforms for IoT (Internet of Things) applications must meet the following challenging requirements:
• Manage content throughput from thousands of devices at a rapid pace.
• Provide real-time visibility into the performance of the assets, which can be anything from production lines to smart-connected products.
• Provide remote monitoring and diagnostic services to end users, including remote troubleshooting and automatic creation of alerts or trouble tickets .
• Predict failures before they occur, integrate with knowledge systems, and integrate augmented-reality technology into the field service processes.
A poor architecture can result in a difficult deployment, costly integration between components with each upgrade, and mixed technologies that limit future flexibility and introduce multiple points of failure. Instead, a connected and distributed architecture is required.
• Connected - A good connection with assets enables the platform to coordinate data monitoring, health monitoring, proactive maintenance, software management, and remote service.
• Distributed - A distributed architecture allows for global management where consolidated statistics and KPIs across all locations are desired and provides local managers with focused and real-time information.
Deploying ThingWorx to Your Specifications
When you choose ThingWorx to support the IoT business processes of your company, the deployment architecture must meet your company’s requirements for security, scalability, performance, interoperability, flexibility, and maintainability.
You might ask the following questions:
• What are the deployment options that can meet those requirements?
• How can you combine the necessary elements that address your company’s requirements into a coherent system?
• How can you be sure that the architecture you deploy can be expanded to support future needs?
The first critical step toward developing a ThingWorx deployment architecture is to gain an understanding of the following points:
• The structural organization, the elements and their roles, and the interfaces of the ThingWorx architecture.
• The configuration options that combine the necessary elements to support your company’s requirements.
◦ Some ThingWorx configurations that have been proven to work.