The premise behind ThingWorx is that manufactured products are transforming into services. A product can be remotely monitored, maintained, and its data analyzed as part of the extended service wrapper. It is an interesting point of view on the evolution of products.

GE provides the engine not as a product but as a service, it continues to maintain it after the sale. Boeing provides the plane as a service, it continues to maintain it after the sale.

ThingWorkx claims to makes it easier for any product to be converted to such a service. It’s not clear how this works with legacy systems – whether it is an agent or a wrapper and how easy it is to add. Its security whitepaper discusses authentication, authorization, encryption, security models, audit etc.

Imagine a hyperconnected supply chain consisting of components that are tracked back by their supplier. Security and access controls would be a challenge in such a dynamic environment.

An example of a product/application on ThingWorx is Velio OBD device and Velio Webhook application.  The Webhook application displays basic data coming from OBD modules: GPS, accelerometer and OBD-II. It enables users to create customized views depicting the data that is important to them while also enabling access to both live and historical data. The application will be available in the ThingWorx Marketplace.

Some competitors include  Spark Devices, Ayla Networks, Carriots, Xively, Axeda, Arrayent and Berg Cloud.