Objenious: Faster data processing for the Internet of Things

About Objenious

Objenious is an affiliate of Bouygues Telecom providing Internet of Things services with a LoRaWAN network covering 95 percent of the French population.

Industries: Technology
Location: France

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About Claranet

Claranet is a hosted service provider specializing in migration and managed services, and is one of the highest accredited multi-cloud providers worldwide.

Objenious uses Google Kubernetes Engine with Docker to power the infrastructure for its Internet of Things services, reducing latency while using BigQuery to provide immediate automated data analytics.

Google Cloud results

  • Provides clients with immediate automated and integrated data analysis using BigQuery
  • Facilitates DevOps culture with zero downtime upon implementation

Scales easily to handle thousands of messages a second

Objenious offers its clients connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT), providing the tools necessary to develop IoT projects from sensors and smart metering to advanced data analytics. With clients ranging from startups to CAC 40 blue chip companies, since its launch in 2016 Objenious has grown to become a leading provider of IoT technology in France and operates the country’s first LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network).

An affiliate of Bouygues Telecom, Objenious delivers its services using a LoRaWAN network that covers 95 percent of the French population. With more than 4,000 antennas installed nationally, LoRaWAN is a low power wide area network that connects sensors to the internet. The sensors can be placed inside or outside buildings, with high penetration and accuracy, which are just some of the advantages of using LoRa technology.

“As a new company, you have to provide functionality to your clients very quickly, so we needed a lot of agility on the technological side. Internally, we work with agile methodologies that rely on the process of DevOps, but DevOps relies on the underlying infrastructure.”

Souchiam Sechao, CTO, Objenious

When it launched, Objenious built its infrastructure very rapidly. However, its initial system was struggling to cope with the amount of data generated by the network, and could not facilitate the kind of agile development Objenious hoped to undertake.

“As a new company, you have to provide functionality to your clients very quickly, so we needed a lot of agility on the technological side,” says Souchiam Sechao, CTO at Objenious. “Internally, we work with agile methodologies that rely on the process of DevOps, but DevOps relies on the underlying infrastructure.”

Eliminating delays in data delivery

Working with smart sensors and IoT technology generates enormous amounts of data that is constantly updated and needs to be stored immediately. As its volume of data increased, Objenious’ previous infrastructure was unable to scale to meet the demand and its portal began to experience latency. It needed an infrastructure that was reliable and that could provide clients with the data insights they need to see immediately.

“The deployment of BigQuery has accelerated our own development. We are able to respond very quickly in terms of auditing and supervision services for our clients. We can provide them with information such as how many messages a captor has received this month, and which were the most useful captors.”

Souchiam Sechao, CTO, Objenious

To do that, Objenious switched to Google Cloud. Using Google Kubernetes Engine with Docker, it developed a containerized infrastructure that can scale easily to meet demand. By setting up BigQuery to work with Objenious’ own Cassandra database, it is able to automate data transposition from one to the other. This means it can provide immediate data analysis for its clients, as well as analyze its own data. Other managed services such as Cloud Pub/Sub and Cloud SQL work with BigQuery to further speed up data delivery.

“The deployment of BigQuery has accelerated our own development,” says Souchiam. “We are able to respond very quickly in terms of auditing and supervision services for our clients. We can provide them with information such as how many messages a captor has received this month, and which were the most useful captors.”

Migrating with zero disruption

When migrating to the new platform, Objenious’ services needed to remain operational. “We already had data that was being generated, we couldn’t simply cut the service,” says Souchiam. “We had to find solutions in order to maintain the service while we undertook the move.” With only two in-house technicians at the time, Objenious began working with Claranet, who offered invaluable expertise in working with Kubernetes. Souchiam explains, “Our teams already knew one another, so there was a natural affinity between the teams and the experts from Google.”

“As the platform is a lot more stable, we are able to improve security. And with the power of the optimizations that we were able to put into place with the platform, the TCO is very profitable.”

Souchiam Sechao, CTO, Objenious

The services were migrated one by one in just three months with no disruption. Now Claranet provides ongoing support, liaising with Google so Objenious doesn’t have to be involved in resolving every query. “As soon as there is an issue, those responsible at Claranet and Google can speak to each other directly, without Objenious being there,” says Souchiam. “We weren’t able to do that with our previous partners. We have a level of service that is much faster and more integrated.”

Greater integration with Google Cloud

Moving to Google Cloud has helped Objenious improve its performance, its security, and its profitability. “Now, we are able to deal with thousands of messages per second without it affecting the platform and can size our infrastructure according to our needs,” says Souchiam. “Previously, we had drops in performance when we surpassed a certain number of messages and some were even lost. As the platform is a lot more stable, we are able to improve security. And with the power of the optimizations that we were able to put into place with the platform, the TCO is very profitable. We are able to project into the future on that basis.”

Next, Objenious plans to start using machine learning to further enhance its data analytics services, as well as expand its open source projects. It will also explore how LoRaWan can be integrated further with Google Cloud, especially Cloud IoT Core. “The fact that we are better integrated with Google Cloud will accelerate the development of all those clients who use Google for the management and development of their IoT applications.”

Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.

Contact us

About Objenious

Objenious is an affiliate of Bouygues Telecom providing Internet of Things services with a LoRaWAN network covering 95 percent of the French population.

Industries: Technology
Location: France

About Claranet

Claranet is a hosted service provider specializing in migration and managed services, and is one of the highest accredited multi-cloud providers worldwide.