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Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

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Re: Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

#21

Post by jenesaisdiq »

bravo22 wrote: post #10
jenesaisdiq wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main product isn't the board -- CC3000+STM32 -- but rather the glorious and inscrutable cloud service that goes with it. The board designs are even being given away for free, it's OSHW.

Their cloud software is also open sourced, and based on IEFT CoAp[1]. I see this being useful for a newbie maker, but for product shipping in any volume you'd integrate the CC3K directly ($11 vs $39) and you'd host the cloud server yourself, or pay them a nominal fee. I am not seeing a cloud "operating system". Maybe I'm missing something?? But most of the magic is the cloud app that each device maker writes that doe…

The OS part is that you're running the Spark firmware to manage comms and security, which talks to the Spark Cloud and makes the rest of it easy. Building the cloud app to be fast, stable, scalable, and secure from scratch is difficult, so this is a SaaS play. Plus, how are you going to manage your 100,000 devices in the field? With Spark you can even do it all with API calls.

and, uh, cough I just joined Spark as well...

Re: Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

#22

Post by middleca »

jenesaisdiq wrote: post #21
bravo22 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their cloud software is also open sourced, and based on IEFT CoAp[1]. I see this being useful for a newbie maker, but for product shipping in any volume you'd integrate the CC3K directly ($11 vs $39) and you'd host the cloud server yourself, or pay them a nominal fee. I am not seeing a cloud "operating system". Maybe I'm missing something?? But most of the magic is the cloud app that each device maker writes that doe…

The OS part is that you're running the Spark firmware to manage comms and security, which talks to the Spark Cloud and makes the rest of it easy. Building the cloud app to be fast, stable, scalable, and secure from scratch is difficult, so this is a SaaS play. Plus, how are you going to manage your 100,000 devices in the field? With Spark you can even do it all with API calls. and, uh, cough I just joined Spark as we…

oh hey! :)

Re: Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

#23

Post by bravo22 »

middleca wrote: post #19
bravo22 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, I agree. That is what I gathered before but the article and their new splash page makes it seem like they want to supply this to large device makers (i.e. anyone not building things out of their basement) and I don't see how this could work. They can't make money on the hardware, because TI makes the chip and provides the reference design and drivers for free. Spark boards are all OSHW anyways. You'd spend the…

Hi bravo22, I'm from Spark, and I can try to answer! :) With more than 20,000 units in the field, the Spark community is the largest consumer of the CC3000 module, so you get the benefits of driver testing and patches, and great community support. Large businesses could certainly use the open source modules and run with them, but if you're a large business you generally want to pay for support and licensing. Next for…

Thank David. Thanks so much for answering!

Couple of questions: - Are you always sticking w/ CC3000 or are there other WiFi modules you intend to support?

My main question, might have gone unnoticed in my long post... Is there a service of yours that I need to pay for to get these features, or do I get the benefits you outlined above by running your firmware and deploying your open source cloud code on my system?

Do you have plans to go closed source in the future?

Re: Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

#24

Post by zsupalla »

bravo22 wrote: post #23
middleca wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi bravo22, I'm from Spark, and I can try to answer! :) With more than 20,000 units in the field, the Spark community is the largest consumer of the CC3000 module, so you get the benefits of driver testing and patches, and great community support. Large businesses could certainly use the open source modules and run with them, but if you're a large business you generally want to pay for support and licensing. Next for…

Thank David. Thanks so much for answering! Couple of questions: - Are you always sticking w/ CC3000 or are there other WiFi modules you intend to support? My main question, might have gone unnoticed in my long post... Is there a service of yours that I need to pay for to get these features, or do I get the benefits you outlined above by running your firmware and deploying your open source cloud code on my system? Do…

Zach here, also from Spark. We're definitely working on next-gen hardware now, haven't selected a final chipset yet.

Our hosted cloud is somewhat different from the open source version, and the differences will grow over time. As an open source company, the question always comes to "how do we make money?" Our open source thesis is to give away basic technology and sell advanced technology. Right now the biggest differences between our hosted cloud and the open source version is scalability; our system is designed to scale horizontally whereas the open source one is a single instance (although it could, of course, be modified). We are still deciding which features that are still in development will be open sourced, and which won't. We've learned from other for-profit open source companies (like MongoDB, for instance), that even after being on the market for years they're still trying to figure out which features to give away and which to sell.

Re: Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

#25

Post by zsupalla »

fiatmoney wrote: post #4

Can we stop naming things Spark already? There are - these guys - http://www.sparkjava.com - http://spark.apache.org Even worse, they're all high-quality projects. I can process data from my Spark devices on my Spark cluster and serve the results via Spark.

Don't forget Autodesk's open source 3D printer platform Spark! So you can print the enclosure for your Spark devices with Spark too.

Re: Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

#26

Post by bravo22 »

zsupalla wrote: post #24
bravo22 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank David. Thanks so much for answering! Couple of questions: - Are you always sticking w/ CC3000 or are there other WiFi modules you intend to support? My main question, might have gone unnoticed in my long post... Is there a service of yours that I need to pay for to get these features, or do I get the benefits you outlined above by running your firmware and deploying your open source cloud code on my system? Do…

Zach here, also from Spark. We're definitely working on next-gen hardware now, haven't selected a final chipset yet. Our hosted cloud is somewhat different from the open source version, and the differences will grow over time. As an open source company, the question always comes to "how do we make money?" Our open source thesis is to give away basic technology and sell advanced technology. Right now the biggest diffe…

Thanks for answering Zach! Your answer certainly helps make it more clear.

To use your feature rich cloud, would one have to use your spark core board or one can roll own CC3000 based board + your open source firmware but pay you and have it talk to your closed cloud for scale? When is your plan to announce pricing for this feature rich cloud?

Re: Spark Labs Raises $4.9M to Help Engineers Make Their Devices Smart

#28

Post by follower »

fiatmoney wrote: post #4

Can we stop naming things Spark already? There are - these guys - http://www.sparkjava.com - http://spark.apache.org Even worse, they're all high-quality projects. I can process data from my Spark devices on my Spark cluster and serve the results via Spark.

Even more so in this area with http://SparkFun.com/ who had to deal with issues arising from having a name with "spark" in it: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/300
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