Aeris is offering channel partners an angle into the largely untapped IoT market with a new program.
The vendor, which provides security service edge for IoT and fixed wireless access, expanded its routes to market last month to include managed service providers, system integrators, technology service distributors and OEMs. Those partners join a group of 30 mobile network operators Aeris gained through its 2023 acquisition of Ericsson’s IoT business.
The company has added 10 new partners, with a goal of giving personalized onboarding and training in its connectivity management and IoT monitoring platforms to each, according to Robert Holley, head of channel and new routes to market at Aeris.
Aeris already drives more than 70% of its revenue through telco partners, but the company intends to eventually exceed 98%, said Holley told Channel Dive.
“We want to empower the MSPs to manage the solution for our customers, just like the CSPs/telcos manage it today,” Holley said.
The Aeris platform tracks data plans and IoT data flows and leverages Ericsson’s legacy IoT platform to observe and manage traffic. The company has a multi-carrier approach to IoT management, relying on 30 MNO partners to cover specific geographies. Aeris’ platform can be managed by the customer or a partner.
The company is small but mighty. Aeris employs 500 to 700 people but has more than 100 million deployed devices — second only to Cisco. More than 43 million of those devices are deployed in vehicles, Holley said.
IoT draws a crowd
Internal and external factors are driving Aeris to move beyond carrier partnerships.
Aeris CEO and Board Director Aziz Benmalek, who rose to the chief executive position in February, comes from channel-heavy companies Sage North America, ConnectWise and Microsoft. He previously served as Splunk’s channel chief for two years.
Benmalek was instrumental in pushing for additional partnership, Holley said.
Aeris is also seeing partner-friendly SSE providers encroach into the IoT market. Versa Networks in late 2023 added IoT capabilities to its platform. In July, Zscaler expanded its zero trust solution to IoT and operational technology. Riverbed and Cato Networks are also vying for partners in IoT security.
“You see more organizations that work in the security space that work heavily within the channel now coming into the IoT space,” Holley said.
Aeris customers prefer to go through a partner, whether an MSP or a technology advisor, according to Holley. Going against the grain didn’t make sense.
“Do I build a program and a partner ecosystem that can address it for a larger scale, rather than going directly to the enterprise and trying to continually sell to the enterprise against the ecosystem?” Holley said.
Breaking out of the hype
Channel partners have struggled to find their lane for IoT.
Wireless providers have had success with enterprise IoT, while channel partners focused on mid-market and SMB found repeatable, monetizable use cases rare.
“IoT is pretty much stuck in the hype cycle stage,” said Technology Source Chief Revenue Officer Rob Olson. “There's a lot of talk about it. But we're starting to see the growth.”
Olson said sales are picking up for fleet management. Businesses are also turning to IoT to handle environmental concerns, as well as managing freezers and cooling.
For TAs, who often help businesses source connectivity for their offices, Aeris’s platform is a cross-sell opportunity.
“Now they can say, 'Look, you trust me to do your WAN. You trust me to do your LAN. You trust me to do your call center application, your RingCentral, etc… I'm now able to tie that to the one part that nobody's been able to answer before, which is that IoT device,’” Holley said.
