One of the most prolific types of IoT devices in use today is the security camera. Ironically, a major vulnerability of these cameras is that they might be stolen or broken – you need security for your security cameras. Having devices that can work by themselves is a great time saver because you can leave them to the task that they were designed for. However, remotely located, unmanned devices still need to be monitored and the best way to do that is to deploy an automated monitoring tool.

Here is our list of the seven best IoT monitoring tools:

Remote monitoring tools

Businesses that have desktops, servers, and other computerized equipment know that they need to monitor the performance of those devices and the network that connects them. There are many types of monitoring, which include security system, performance, and usage monitoring.

IoT devices are no different from desktops. They have a specific capacity and they need to be checked in order to ensure they work at their peak performance to get the maximum value out of them. It isn’t practical or economical to employ a team to constantly watch the system consoles that all IoT services come with, so getting an automated monitoring tool is a good, practical option.

An automated monitoring tool sets performance expectations and raises an alarm when one of a device’s statuses crosses that line. That service means that there is no need for the tech team to watch over IoT devices all of the time. Performance thresholds are usually set at a level that allows time for a potential problem to be dealt with before it becomes critical. So, support staff can focus on other tasks and only address problems with the IoT devices when an alarm is raised.

The strategy of letting a monitoring tool do all of the work of watching equipment performance has been very successful for IT departments that manage office networks. The same strategy works just as well for IoT devices.

IoT device monitoring issues

The key characteristic of an IoT device is that it has an onboard processor and is connected to the Internet. Whether your IoT devices are connected to your own private network or directly connected to the Internet, they can be contacted. You don’t need to visit each piece of equipment to update its firmware because that job is performed automatically by the manufacturer over the Internet.

There are some serious problems to address with Internet-connected devices. Any piece of equipment that the owner or manufacturer can alter through remote commands is vulnerable to hackers. The system admin user name and passwords for these devices are usually created as a default by the manufacturer when the firmware is loaded and the same credentials are used by all units produced by each manufacturer.

The owners of IoT devices need to pay attention to their security and the first task that needs to be performed is to change the password on the administrator account for each device. Again, creating one standard password for each device creates a security weakness – if a hacker guesses that one password, your entire network of devices is compromised. If you manage thousands of IoT devices, thinking up a different password and remembering all of them is a very difficult task. Once again, this is a job that needs an automated tool. IoT device monitoring and management systems organize the security of devices while overseeing their health.

Investing in IoT monitoring tools

The market for IoT monitoring and management tools isn’t as well developed as the field of network monitoring systems. A lot of IoT device owners rely on the free monitoring tools that are distributed by the manufacturers of the devices.

Manufacturers of IoT devices aren’t that interested in the monitoring software that they produce. They see those tools as a marketing incentive and not an income stream, so they tend to be poorly designed with low-quality interfaces. These manufacturer-supplied IoT monitoring tools are difficult to use and don’t have many features.

If you know that there is a free monitoring tool that comes with a device, you might be reluctant to pay for a professionally produced monitoring tool from a specialist software house. However, many very high-quality IoT monitoring tools are free to use, while others cost very little compared to the advantages and cost savings they bring.

IoT devices are supposed to save time and money but they jeopardize the success of your business if they keep going wrong. Often, the reason for their malfunction isn’t that they were poorly built but because they have the wrong settings or because they are overloaded. A good IoT device monitoring tool can ensure that your IoT infrastructure keeps working all of the time. Therefore, it is worth spending a little money to get the right system monitor.

The best IoT monitoring tools

There are many IoT device monitoring tools available now. However, not many of them are any good. You can spend a lot of time and money investigating these tools and still not find one that works properly.

The key problem you will face is that you probably just don’t know where to look or what attributes to prioritize.

With these selection criteria in mind, we identified a list of IoT device monitoring software that we would be happy to recommend. We particularly made sure to include monitoring systems for industrial devices.

Our methodology for selecting IoT device monitoring software 

We reviewed the market for IoT device monitoring systems and analyzed tools based on the following criteria:

  • An autodiscovery feature to find devices on a network
  • Device status monitoring
  • Connection security
  • Remote monitoring for centralized management
  • IoT device security
  • A free trial or a demo system for a no-cost assessment opportunity
  • Value for money from a tool that is able to monitor distributed devices in many locations that is delivered at a reasonable price

1. Domotz (FREE TRIAL)

Domotz is a cloud-based network and endpoint monitoring platform that also provides system management functions. This service is capable of monitoring security cameras as well as network devices and endpoints. The security cameras need to be compatible with the ONVIF standard in order to be monitored by Domotz.

Key Features:

  • Manage camera configurations
  • Access video streams from cameras
  • Check on network connections to cameras
  • Monitor LANs and wireless networks
  • Log technician access to camera

With Domotz, you get configuration protection for network devices as well as your IoT security cameras. This service backs up an image of the device configuration and then periodically compares current settings to that image. If differences are detected, the original configuration is restored by applying the backup. This event will also generate an alert.

All devices connected to the network are automatically detected and logged in an asset inventory. The tool also creates a network topology map, documenting the connections of all types of devices on the network. The structure of a Domotz account means that multiple networks can be consolidated into one monitoring system, providing multi-site performance tracking. The system is also offered in a multi-tenanted structure, allowing managed service providers to use this system to watch the networks of their clients – again, each sub-account can monitor multiple sites.

Domotz is available for assessment with a 14-day free trial.

Pros:

  • Security monitoring, watching over switch ports, and device configurations
  • An endpoint management service that creates a software inventory and implements patching
  • IoT security camera management and testing services as well as monitoring
  • Consolidated monitoring for It systems on multiple sites
  • A cloud-based management console accessed through any standard Web browser

Cons:

  • The free trial period is only 14 days

2. Splunk Industrial for IoT

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Domotz is our top pick for an IoT device monitoring tool because it is able to watch over all network devices and endpoints as well as IoT security cameras. Thus, it unifies the monitoring of a wide range of equipment. The tool provides connection testing and camera video quality checking functions as well as regular network performance monitoring. This service is offered at a fixed price per site no matter how many devices are connected. This is a great advantage for businesses that run large numbers of security cameras.

Download: Access 14-day FREE Trial

Official Site: https://portal.domotz.com/signup

OS: Cloud-based

Splunk is a network data analysis tool that provides monitoring services by operating on live data. The system monitors networks and the core version is free to use. The tool also has a higher-level version that includes more sophisticated components. That is called Splunk Enterprise and it has a fee.

  • Designed for manufacturing environments
  • Detects connected devices
  • Predicts maintenance needs
  • Constant monitoring
  • Performance alerts

Splunk Industrial for IoT was released in 2018. It is an adaptation of Splunk Enterprise and, therefore, is not free to use. As well as including the network monitoring capabilities of Splunk Enterprise, this system deploys the Splunk Machine Learning Toolkit and Splunk Industrial Asset Intelligence (IAI).

The base Splunk Enterprise monitors the statuses of IoT devices and alerts staff to rising problems. The Machine Learning Toolkit produces predictions on downtime and recommendations on preventative maintenance. IAI monitors regular communications between devices and controllers and looks out for anomalous instructions that would indicate hacker intrusion and possible device takeover.

Splunk Industrial for IoT is available for a 60-day free trial as part of Splunk Enterprise.

  • Offers a wide range of integrations catering to large IoT environments

  • An excellent user interface, highly visual with easy customization options

  • Enterprise focused – designed to scale across large networks

  • Offers pre-made dashboards, templates, and reporting capabilities

  • Leverages AI to create insights and provide root cause analysis

  • Caters more to enterprise networks than small to medium-sized organizations

3. Datadog IoT Monitoring

Splunk Industrial for IoT sets performance thresholds that automatically monitor device health, freeing up support staff for other tasks. Communication channels to IoT devices are scanned for hacker activity and special AI-based routines predict the need for preventative maintenance.

Start 60 Day Free Trial: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/download.html

OS: Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Solaris 11, AIX, and Cloud-based.

Datadog is a cloud-based infrastructure monitoring suite and it has specialized processes for IoT device monitoring. The processors and dashboard for the service are hosted on the Datadog servers but an agent program gets installed on each IoT device.

  • Cloud-based
  • Autodiscovery
  • Performance monitoring
  • Connection and device security

The onboard monitoring agent is able to gather statistics and maintain a two-way communication channel with the Datadog servers. All transmissions are secured to block out hackers and the agent enables security on each device to be hardened by enabling all of a fleet’s admin passwords to be changed, each having a unique, uncrackable string. Not all IoT device firmware is able to carry the agent. In those cases, Datadog is able to collect data through firmware APIs.

The Datadog service uses performance alert thresholds to monitor more than 100 statuses simultaneously. The system also pays attention to configuration hardening and protection and performs security monitoring.

4. Senseye PdM

  • Easy to use customizable dashboards

  • Cloud-based SaaS product allows monitoring with no server deployments or onboarding costs

  • Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps on the fly

  • Changes made to the network are reflected in near real-time

  • Allows businesses to scale their monitoring efforts reliably through flexible pricing options

  • Would like to see a longer trial period for testing

PdM stands for “predictive maintenance” and Senseye PdM is all about monitoring shop floor robots to make sure they don’t break down. This IoT device monitoring tool is specifically tailored towards industrial equipment and uses AI techniques to predict when preventative maintenance will be needed.

  • Monitors shop floor robots
  • AI for maintenance predictions
  • Cloud-based

The PdM tool offers a window in which maintenance should be performed, offering the factory management team to schedule downtime outside of critical production hours.

This system is cloud-based so it can be accessed from anywhere in the world. That allows HQ staff to manage production sites all over the world from one central location.

5. SkySpark

  • Focuses on providing IoT solutions

  • Great visual reporting – uses color well to highly critical metrics

  • Operates in the cloud making it easy to scale

  • Some features catering to industrial IoT might not be applicable to all businesses

SkySpark’s monitoring system collects all possible data available on smart devices and sifts through it for the pertinent metrics that indicate performance, capacity, and utilization.

  • Remote monitoring
  • Capacity monitoring
  • Spots shop floor bottlenecks

The problem with many smart device firmware systems isn’t that they don’t have mechanisms for performance data creation but that they sometimes produce an overwhelming amount of statistics. Being able to spot important information is a specialist task that is programmed into the SkySpark system.

The SkySpark system is cloud-based, so it can be accessed from anywhere. The dashboard offers insights into capacity utilization, identifying where the workload is unevenly distributed. It offers the opportunity to spot process bottlenecks and reroute tasks to get the maximum return on investment out of IoT devices.

The analytical functions in SkySpark examine the settings of each device, working out whether the equipment is tuned correctly for its purpose. This creates more opportunities to squeeze value for money out of IoT investments.

The SkySpark IoT monitor keeps an eye on the behavior and performance of all devices in an organization no matter where they are located. An alerting system draws attention to arising problems in time to enable the device to be fixed. A demand analysis procedure also advises on the best time to perform preventative maintenance in order to keep all devices operating when needed.

6. TeamViewer IoT

  • Features builtin filters to extract key data for specific insights

  • Offers granular data collection settings

  • Can monitor the performance and uptime of each IoT sensor

  • SkySpark is fairly enterprise focused and might not be the best option for smaller IoT networks

TeamViewer is best known for its teleconferencing and remote access products. However, the company also produces remote device monitoring software and it covers the management of IoT devices as well.

  • Cloud-based
  • Centralizes the management of scattered devices
  • Industrial equipment, AV, and security systems

TeamViewer IoT is a cloud-based system, so it allows IoT devices anywhere in the world to be monitored and managed from one central location. As a renowned producer of teleconferencing services, TeamViewer was also able to integrate collaboration facilities into its monitoring tool. This makes it very easy for an HQ production engineer to work together with a local production manager to improve IoT device performance. The remote manager is even able to operate IoT devices through the TeamViewer service.

The TeamViewer IoT monitoring tool isn’t limited to the management of industrial robots. It is also able to monitor AV devices and security systems. All communication is secured with encryption and services while the IoT management system enables the hardening of security for each device.

TeamViewer IoT is available for free to monitor two IoT devices.

  • Offers a free tier for up to two sensors

  • Uses a simple (and familiar) dashboard to manage your sensors

  • Offers customizable security features with encryption enabled by default

  • Only available as a cloud-based solution

7. AWS IoT Device Management

  • Device grouping
  • SIEM integration
  • Security and performance monitoring

As a cloud-based service, AWS IoT Device Management is accessible from anywhere through a web browser and it can manage devices anywhere in the world. The tool is very easy to set up and use thanks to wizards for just about every task.

Devices can be registered and managed in bulk or individually and the system manager can create groups of devices to perform standard automated tasks simultaneously on all similar devices without having to repeat each command.

The service can manage patches and updates, roll out configuration changes, and manage passwords for all devices. Connections to devices are protected by encryption and there is also a VPN option for full privacy. A log collection service enables the IoT devices to be included in a business-wide SIEM system. The system includes a module called AWS IoT Device Defender, which monitors performance and behavior to maintain availability and spot possible hacker activity.

Choosing IoT device monitor software

IoT devices are valuable assets and their activities can really enhance the profitability of your organization. However, if you aren’t monitoring those IoT devices, you are not getting the best value for money out of them and you risk an IoT failure bringing your business to a standstill.

  • Integrates well into other AWS products and environments

  • Great configuration and device management options

  • Offers IoT intrusion prevention/detection

  • Better suited to organizations that already leverage AWS products

IoT device monitoring is an essential part of business management. There are some excellent IoT device monitoring tools available right now and the ones listed in this guide are certainly worth a try.

  • Splunk Industrial for IoT
  • Datadog IoT Monitoring
  • Senseye PdM
  • SkySpark
  • TeamViewer IoT
  • Domotz
  • AWS IoT Device Management