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Internet of Things

IoT Platform Development

Build a secure, scalable platform to connect, manage and update device fleets, and to turn their telemetry into dependable data, alerts and APIs.

A Platform Foundation for Every Connected Product and Fleet

An IoT platform is the layer between devices and the applications that use their data. It authenticates and provisions devices, ingests telemetry over protocols such as MQTT, stores time-series data, tracks device state, applies rules, pushes configuration and firmware updates, and exposes clean APIs and events to business systems. Getting this layer right determines whether a fleet of a hundred devices can grow to a hundred thousand.

Hanoi Technology designs and builds IoT platforms on AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud services or open-source components such as EMQX and The Things Stack. We help you choose between managed services and self-hosted options, and we build in security, observability and cost control from the start.

The Challenge

Platform Challenges as Fleets Grow

Problems that appear when a prototype backend meets a production fleet.

Insecure or Manual Provisioning

Shared credentials and hand-configured devices do not scale and create serious security risk. Each new batch of devices takes days to bring online. Revoking a compromised device is difficult when many share the same secret.

No Remote Device Management

Without device twins, remote configuration and over-the-air updates, fixing a bug means a site visit. Firmware versions drift across the fleet.

Ingestion That Cannot Handle Peaks

Reconnect storms, bursts after outages and growing fleets overload brokers and databases. Data is delayed or lost when it matters most.

Shifting Cloud Service Landscape

Managed IoT offerings evolve; Microsoft, for example, has announced the retirement of Azure IoT Central in 2029. Platforms tightly coupled to one service face costly re-platforming.

Business Value

Benefits of a Purpose-Built IoT Platform

Zero-Touch Onboarding

Devices provision themselves securely with unique certificates when first powered on. Large batches come online without manual steps.

Full Fleet Control

Device twins, remote configuration and staged over-the-air updates keep every device current and correctly configured.

Reliable Data at Any Scale

Elastic brokers, buffering and durable streams ensure telemetry is delivered even during peaks or after outages.

Clean APIs for Applications

Business applications consume normalized events and device state through APIs, without knowing protocol details.

Lower Running Costs

Message batching, edge filtering, tiered storage and right-sized services keep per-device cost predictable as the fleet grows.

Portability and Flexibility

Standard protocols and a well-defined abstraction layer limit lock-in and make it easier to adopt new devices or cloud services.

Design the Platform for the Fleet You Will Have

Architecture decisions made for a pilot of fifty devices often fail at fifty thousand. We size brokers, topic structures, storage, provisioning and update processes for your target fleet and growth rate, and we load-test them with simulated devices before real ones arrive.

Our Services

Hanoi Technology’s End-to-End IoT Platform Services

Platform capabilities we design, build and operate.

Platform Architecture and Selection

We compare managed cloud IoT services and open-source stacks against your fleet size, protocols, regions, compliance needs and budget, and document a reference architecture. We also define data residency and multi-region requirements early, as they shape many later choices.

  • Platform comparison
  • Reference architecture
  • Cost model per device

Device Identity and Provisioning

We implement X.509 certificate-based identity, secure elements where needed, and automated provisioning flows such as fleet provisioning or the Azure Device Provisioning Service. Manufacturing and factory provisioning processes are designed together with your hardware partners.

  • Certificate and PKI design
  • Zero-touch provisioning flow
  • Credential rotation process

Telemetry Ingestion and Storage

We design MQTT topic structures and message schemas, route data to streams, time-series databases and data lakes, and handle buffering, ordering and deduplication. Data is also forwarded to your analytics platform for long-term analysis and machine learning.

  • Topic and payload design
  • Ingestion pipelines
  • Hot, warm and cold storage tiers

Device Management and OTA Updates

We build device twins or shadows, remote commands, configuration management and staged firmware rollouts with automatic rollback. Fleet views show firmware versions, connectivity and battery health at a glance.

  • Device twin or shadow model
  • OTA update pipeline
  • Fleet health dashboards

Rules, Alerts and Integration APIs

We implement rules engines and event processing for thresholds and anomalies, and expose REST and event APIs for business applications and partners. APIs are documented, versioned and secured with standard authentication.

  • Rules and alert engine
  • Notification workflows
  • Public and internal APIs

Edge Computing

We deploy containerized logic to gateways using AWS IoT Greengrass, Azure IoT Edge or lightweight runtimes, for local processing, filtering and offline operation. Edge modules are deployed and updated centrally, like any other part of the platform.

  • Edge runtime setup
  • Edge modules
  • Offline store and forward

Our Approach

How We Build IoT Platforms

Engineering steps that make a platform ready for production fleets.

  1. 01

    Requirements and Fleet Profile

    We document device types, message rates, payload sizes, connectivity, regions, security requirements and expected growth.

    Deliverables: Fleet profile · Non-functional requirements

  2. 02

    Architecture and Proof of Concept

    We design the platform and validate critical choices, such as provisioning and ingestion, with a small set of real devices.

    Deliverables: Architecture design · Working proof of concept

  3. 03

    Build Core Services

    We implement provisioning, ingestion, storage, device management, rules and APIs as infrastructure as code with automated tests.

    Deliverables: Core platform services · CI/CD pipelines

  4. 04

    Load and Security Testing

    We simulate the target fleet, including reconnect storms and network failures, and run security reviews and penetration tests.

    Deliverables: Load test report · Security assessment

  5. 05

    Launch and Operate

    We onboard production devices in stages, set up monitoring and on-call processes, and operate or hand over the platform.

    Deliverables: Production launch · Runbooks and monitoring

Use Cases

IoT Platform Use Cases

Fleets and products our platforms support.

Connected Product Backends

A manufacturer adds connectivity to its devices and needs a backend for apps and support. Customers control devices remotely and support teams diagnose faults without site visits.

Multi-Site Sensor Networks

An operator manages thousands of sensors across many sites and vendors. One platform normalizes their data and manages them consistently.

Fleet and Tracker Management

A logistics company runs trackers on vehicles and containers. The platform manages battery, firmware and reporting intervals across the fleet.

Industrial Equipment Monitoring

Machines stream condition data through edge gateways. Edge filtering reduces bandwidth while anomalies are forwarded immediately.

Smart Building Platforms

HVAC, lighting, metering and occupancy devices feed a common platform. Facility software uses one API instead of many vendor systems.

Migration Between Managed Services

An organization moves off a retiring or ill-fitting managed IoT service. Devices are reprovisioned in waves while data continuity is maintained.

Technology

Platform Technologies

Managed services, brokers and databases we build with.

  • AWS IoT Core
  • AWS IoT Greengrass
  • AWS IoT Device Management
  • Azure IoT Hub
  • Azure IoT Edge
  • Azure Device Provisioning Service
  • Azure Device Registry
  • EMQX
  • Eclipse Mosquitto
  • HiveMQ
  • MQTT 5
  • The Things Stack
  • Apache Kafka
  • InfluxDB
  • TimescaleDB
  • Grafana

Platforms

Deliver IoT Platform on Your Preferred Platform

Why Hanoi Technology

Why Organizations Choose Hanoi Technology

Senior, Cross-Functional Teams

Strategy, data, AI, cloud and engineering specialists work as one team, so nothing is lost between hand-offs.

Proven Delivery

More than 50 projects delivered for clients in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Radical Transparency

A written update every week and a demo of working software every sprint, so you always know where things stand.

Cost-Effective Global Delivery

Experienced engineers from our Hanoi delivery hub, with working-hour overlap for every major time zone.

−25%operational costs

Success Story · Logistics

Route optimization and fleet visibility for a regional logistics company

A regional delivery company handling thousands of shipments a day was planning routes and dispatching by hand. We built dynamic route optimization, a fleet dashboard and a driver app.

Read the Full Story

More Success Stories

Food delivery

+58%total orders

AI dispatch and live tracking for a food delivery startup

A fast-growing urban food delivery startup was losing customers to slow deliveries at peak times. We built AI order dispatching and connected restaurants, drivers and customers in real time.

Explore All Success Stories

Resources

Featured Resources

Industry trends and practical guidance to help you get more value from data, AI and technology.

Build an IoT Platform Ready for Your Whole Fleet

Share your device types, fleet size and goals with our architects. We will reply within 24 hours and set up a free consultation to recommend a platform approach.

IoT Platform FAQ

Should we use a managed cloud IoT service or build on open source?

Managed services such as AWS IoT Core or Azure IoT Hub reduce operational effort and integrate well with their clouds, which suits most teams. Open-source brokers and network servers give more control, portability and sometimes lower cost at very large scale, but require more operations work. We compare both for your fleet size, regions, protocols and skills, and often recommend a managed core with portable abstractions.

How do you handle device security?

Each device gets a unique identity, typically an X.509 certificate, ideally stored in a secure element. Communication is encrypted with TLS, permissions are scoped so a device can only publish and subscribe to its own topics, and firmware is signed and updated over the air. We monitor for unusual behavior, support certificate rotation and revocation, and align with baselines such as ETSI EN 303 645.

How do over-the-air updates work safely?

Updates are signed, delivered in stages to small groups first, and monitored for failures before wider rollout. Devices verify signatures before installing, keep a fallback image and report success or failure back to the platform. If error rates rise, the rollout pauses or rolls back automatically. We design this process together with your firmware team.

How many devices can the platform support?

Managed brokers and well-designed open-source clusters can scale to very large fleets. The practical limits come from design: topic structures, message rates, storage choices and provisioning flows. We size every component for your target fleet with headroom, and verify the design by load testing with simulated devices at and above expected volumes before go-live.

What does it cost to run an IoT platform?

Running costs depend mainly on the number of devices, message frequency and size, storage retention and the services used. We build a cost model per device during design, then reduce cost through edge filtering, batching, appropriate reporting intervals and tiered storage. Dashboards track actual cost per device so you can see trends early.

How long does it take to build an IoT platform?

A proof of concept with real devices can usually be delivered in several weeks. A production-ready platform with provisioning, device management, OTA updates, rules, APIs and monitoring typically takes a few months, depending on scope and integrations. We deliver in sprints with demos and weekly written updates, so you can connect pilot devices well before the full platform is finished.

Can the platform support devices from different manufacturers?

Yes. We design an abstraction layer that maps vendor-specific payloads and protocols into a common data model, so applications work with normalized device types rather than individual products. New device types are added through adapters or decoders without changing business applications. This approach makes it easier to dual-source hardware, replace discontinued devices and integrate sensors already installed by other vendors.