Firmware and Device Management

Balena is a complete set of tools for building/deploying software for and managing fleets of connected devices.

Balena Cloud is a hosted version of openBalena with extra features including a web interface, build service, and a VPN.

balenaOS is the operating system that runs on the devices. It comes with it’s own Docker container engine (balenaEngine) and the supervisor which provides connectivity between the device and Balena Cloud and facilitates the lifecyle management of application containers.

SWOT Analysis

As the firmware and device management platform is a key part of the success of the project, a SWOT analysis was completed:

Strengths

  • The ecosystem provides a full suite of products and services for IoT development

  • Commercial support is available from Balena engineers

  • A full device management system is provided

  • Development is done using docker containers, which are familiar to many sofware developers

  • Devices can be accessed through the LAN when Local Mode is enabled. This is very convenient for development purposes: code can be pushed directly into the device and the Docker images are built in the device itself instead of using Balena Cloud. Build times are greatly reduced

Weaknesses

  • BalenaCloud is a paid for subscription. The cost to manage 300 devices for the pilot sites would be in the order of $8000 per year

  • In using Balena, some control over the host OS is lost

Opportunities

  • The ecosystem is well documented and easy for new developers to get started with

  • Free accounts are available - development can be complete before charges are applied

Threats

  • The Balena ecosystem could be seen as being a “walled garden”. However, Balena open source many parts of their system. If at some point in the future, the project needs to be moved from BalenaCloud, development could be continued using the open source building blocks of BalenaCloud