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C3 IoT simplifies AI and IoT app development

The C3 IoT low-code development platform helps developers of all skill levels build AI and other next-generation applications without having to write any code.

C3 IoT's model-driven approach to low-code application development aims to empower all kinds of developers to build scalable AI and IoT apps.

The C3 IoT low-code PaaS provides various interfaces on top of a library of reusable components for professional programmers, casual coders and novices to build enterprise AI and IoT applications. A pro developer can work in a familiar coding environment, whereas a data scientist will get a more data-centric interface. A business analyst would get a totally visual interface, with drag-and-drop capabilities to access data.

Software artifacts called C3 types -- available in different programming languages -- invoke methods to develop machine learning algorithms and package those up without writing any code.

The C3 type system's model-based approach defines application services, predictive analytics and IoT applications in the cloud. Through its visual interface, users manipulate metadata that is interpreted by the C3 IoT platform, which then orchestrates underlying services on various cloud platforms.

Developers typically build applications and consider integration and orchestration as afterthoughts, but C3 IoT considers integration from the outset and uses the model-driven architecture to quickly build the app, said Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research in San Francisco. This approach to integration comes from the company's Siebel DNA, he said -- its founder and CEO is Tom Siebel, who founded customer relationship management company Siebel Systems, which was acquired by Oracle in 2006.

Ed Abbo, CTO, C3 IoTEd Abbo

The product is targeted at enterprise developers. Using the PaaS, even small teams of three to five people can create prototypes in a day or two, production pilots in six to 12 weeks and full-scale production apps in three to six months, said Ed Abbo, co-founder, president and CTO of C3 IoT, based in Redwood City, Calif.

Customers use C3 IoT's platform to deliver predictive analytics to optimize precision medicine, agriculture and manufacturing, and to plan maintenance on machinery and aircraft.

For business applications, low-code and no-code capabilities are essential, because a company or enterprise can spread their developer base wider and not rely only on professional developers, Mueller said.

"That's a general trend in the industry; people have a hard time trying to find enough good developers," he said. "Everybody needs to have a low-code, no-code story."

C3 IoT targets the Microsoft cloud

Everybody needs to have a low-code, no-code story.
Holger Muelleranalyst, Constellation Research

Last month, C3 IoT partnered with Microsoft to use Microsoft Azure as a preferred cloud platform in response to customers' desire to tap into the Azure intelligent services, including Azure Machine Learning services and Azure IoT Hub and data stores. The companies also will co-market and co-sell products.

Azure is a set of hundreds of services, and the C3 IoT platform cuts down on the amount of code a developer must write to orchestrate those underlying services, Mueller said.

With the C3 IoT platform and its model-driven architecture, developers can build and deploy an app on Azure, and then deploy it on another cloud platform with no changes. C3 IoT has a similar preferred cloud partnership with AWS.

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