Embedded and IoT
Development Services

Our embedded and IoT development follows a phased implementation approach that prioritises hardware understanding, firmware reliability, and operational scale from the outset. It starts with requirements gathering: we assess your device constraints, connectivity options, power budget, and security model. We evaluate existing IoT platforms and hardware modules that align with your specifications, then specify the exact processor, memory, and connectivity components you need.

From there, we move into firmware architecture and prototype validation. We design firmware with proven patterns for modularity and testability, select the right real-time operating system for your constraints, and validate critical functionality on real hardware before committing to full implementation. We test prototypes under realistic network and power conditions to catch assumptions that only fail in production.

Full firmware implementation follows iterative development sprints with comprehensive testing at every stage. Unit tests validate individual modules, integration tests verify subsystem interaction, and hardware-in-the-loop testing exercises failure scenarios on real devices. We establish continuous integration practices that run automated tests on every code change.

Finally, we implement over-the-air update infrastructure, device provisioning systems, and fleet monitoring that keeps your devices reliable and secure at scale. The entire process is documented so your team can maintain and extend the system after launch.

We build IoT systems across a wide range of applications: sensor networks that collect environmental or operational data, connected devices that serve customers or field operations, preventive maintenance systems that monitor equipment health, supply chain tracking that monitors assets in transit, and industrial automation that coordinates multiple devices. The underlying pattern is the same regardless of the vertical: reliable hardware, resilient firmware, secure communications, and operational infrastructure to manage devices at scale.

We approach each use case with the same discipline: understand the specific constraints and failure modes of your devices, design firmware architecture that handles those conditions gracefully, and build monitoring systems that catch problems before they affect users. That fundamental approach works across healthcare sensors, financial services hardware, manufacturing IoT, agriculture monitoring, and everywhere else devices need to work reliably without constant human intervention.

Security is built into every layer of our approach, from device authentication and firmware signing to encrypted communications and secure over-the-air updates. We use established cryptographic protocols rather than custom security implementations. Device authentication happens before any communication is trusted. Firmware updates are signed with keys you control, so only authorised updates can run on your devices. Communications between devices and servers are encrypted, and audit trails track all device activity.

For regulated industries like healthcare and finance, we understand the specific compliance requirements you're operating under. We design systems that maintain audit trails, implement role-based access controls, and handle sensitive data according to regulatory standards. We establish secure provisioning processes that don't expose credentials, and we maintain documentation that auditors can follow.

We also plan for the security issues that emerge after deployment. We establish processes for coordinating security updates, mechanisms to push patches to all devices in your fleet, and monitoring systems that alert you to unusual device behaviour that might indicate a compromise.

Firmware is the software that runs directly on embedded processors and microcontrollers — the C or Rust code that controls your specific device hardware. Platform development is the broader infrastructure that manages devices: cloud services that coordinate your fleet, APIs that let applications talk to devices, databases that store device data, and user interfaces that let you monitor and control devices remotely.

Most IoT projects need both. We handle the firmware side — the code that makes your specific hardware work reliably. The platform side often integrates with existing cloud infrastructure like AWS IoT Core or Azure IoT Hub, or we can build custom platform services if your requirements don't fit standard offerings.

We typically recommend leveraging proven IoT platforms for the cloud infrastructure rather than building everything custom. That lets us focus our effort on getting the firmware and hardware right, which is where the real complexity usually lives. But if your specific use case demands a custom platform — custom data pipelines, special security requirements, or integration with legacy systems that don't work with standard IoT services — we can build that too.

Device management at scale means keeping thousands or millions of devices operational, secure, and up-to-date without physical access to each one. That requires thinking about provisioning (how devices get added to your fleet), authentication (how devices prove they're legitimate), configuration (how devices get settings and updates), monitoring (how you know when something goes wrong), and maintenance (how you push updates and handle failures).

We start by designing the architecture to support scale from day one. Rather than a system that works for 100 devices but breaks at 10,000, we design provisioning and monitoring systems that are inherently distributed and don't have centralised bottlenecks.

Provisioning uses secure device registration, so new devices can join your fleet without shipping pre-installed secrets. Configuration is managed through a device management platform that can push settings to your entire fleet in a staged rollout — test with 1% of devices first, then expand to 100% once you're confident the change works.

Over-the-air updates let you push firmware changes to devices in the field. We design update mechanisms with rollback protection, staged deployment, and verification that each device successfully applied the update before moving to the next. Monitoring tracks device health metrics like connectivity, battery level, firmware version, and error rates, alerting you to problems before users notice.

We're pragmatic about technology choices — we pick what solves your specific problem reliably, not what's trendy. For firmware, we primarily work in C and Rust. C is the industry standard for embedded systems with established patterns and excellent hardware support. Rust provides stronger memory safety guarantees, which is valuable for security-critical systems.

For the real-time operating system layer, we evaluate options like FreeRTOS, Zephyr, and bare-metal approaches depending on your requirements. We assess factors like community support, hardware vendor integration, and the specific guarantees your system needs.

On the device management platform side, we typically integrate with AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, or Google Cloud IoT. These handle the hard infrastructure problems — global geographic distribution, secure communications, scale to millions of devices — so we can focus on your specific device logic. If your requirements don't fit standard offerings, we can build custom platform services.

For networking, we work with established protocols like MQTT and CoAP for device communications, and REST/gRPC for service-to-service communication. We assess power and bandwidth trade-offs when selecting connectivity options: WiFi provides high bandwidth but draws more power, Bluetooth works well for personal area networks, cellular provides wide coverage, and LoRaWAN suits long-range, low-power scenarios.

When selecting a partner for embedded and IoT development, consider expertise, hardware experience, technology pragmatism, and engagement model flexibility.

Expertise matters. Look for a partner with hands-on experience building production firmware and device management systems, not just theoretical knowledge of embedded systems. Ask about their work with real-time constraints, power optimisation, network reliability under poor conditions, and over-the-air update mechanisms. A team that can talk through the trade-offs between different real-time operating systems, explain when a microcontroller is sufficient versus when you need a full processor, and understands how to design firmware that handles network failures gracefully is a team that's done this work before.

Hardware experience is essential. Device projects depend on understanding specific processor families, memory constraints, and connectivity options. Your partner should have worked with the hardware you're considering, or have enough experience to evaluate trade-offs quickly. Ask what processors they've used, whether they've worked with your connectivity options, and whether they've handled the specific power constraints your devices need to meet.

Technology pragmatism matters more than vendor preference. Your partner should be willing to work with your existing infrastructure and hardware choices rather than pushing you toward a specific technology stack. If they insist everything must be done with their preferred RTOS or programming language, that's a red flag. The right choice depends on your specific constraints.

Finally, look at engagement models. Good partners offer options that match your stage, whether that's a fixed-price project for a specific device, a retainer for ongoing development, or an embedded engineer who works directly with your team. Rigid, one-size-fits-all engagement usually means the partner is optimising for their operations, not yours.

Launching a device is the beginning, not the end. Devices age, use cases evolve, network conditions change, and security issues emerge over time. Post-launch support means continuous monitoring, regular updates, and responsive maintenance when issues arise.

We establish ongoing monitoring that tracks device health, connectivity, firmware versions, and error patterns across your fleet. Monitoring catches problems early — a device that's rebooting frequently, devices that lost connectivity hours ago, firmware versions that aren't behaving as expected. That early warning lets you respond before users are affected.

Over-the-air updates become routine. When you need to push a bug fix, add a new feature, or address a security issue, the update mechanism is already in place and proven. Staged rollouts let you validate changes on a small device sample before exposing the change to your entire fleet.

We also help your team develop the internal capability to manage ongoing operations independently. That might mean training your operations team on the monitoring and update systems, documenting the firmware architecture so future developers can extend it, or establishing regular review cadences to catch emerging issues.

Some clients prefer a long-term retainer partnership where we remain involved in ongoing optimisation and feature development. Others prefer to transition to independent operations once the system is stable. Both approaches work — the key is establishing monitoring and update mechanisms that keep devices reliable without constant external support.

We work across many industries: healthcare and medical devices, financial services and payments, manufacturing and Industry 4.0, supply chain and logistics, energy and utilities, agriculture and precision farming, smart buildings, automotive and transportation. The specific applications vary widely — health sensors, trading systems, factory equipment, shipping trackers, renewable energy management, crop monitoring — but the underlying engineering challenges are similar across all of them.

More important than vertical-specific experience is our pattern of understanding domain constraints, designing systems that meet those constraints, and delivering devices that remain reliable through the full lifecycle of your operations. We approach healthcare with the same rigour as finance: understand the specific failure modes and regulations you operate under, design systems that handle those constraints, and build monitoring and maintenance processes that keep devices compliant and operational.