Bosch ProSyst Acquisition Good News for Java and OSGi
German Internet of Things (IoT) platform provider Bosch Software Innovations (BSI) is acquiring ProSyst, a Java- and OSGi-based software vendor specializing in middleware for the IoT, the two companies announced this week. BSI, a subsidiary of the Bosch Group, specializes in the development of gateway software and middleware for IoT.
ProSyst is a provider of middleware for managing connected devices and implementing Machine-to-Machine (M2M) cloud-based applications. The company's roots are in Java and the Open Service Gateway initiative (OSGi) specification, and it has focused mainly on open, modular, and neutral software platforms that services providers and device manufacturers can use to deploy apps and services.
ProSyst products serve as a link between devices and the cloud, and that link is essential for interconnecting buildings, vehicles and machines, said BSI president Rainer Kallenbach, in a statement.
"[T]he ProSyst software will enable our customers to launch new applications on the Internet of Things more quickly and be one of the first to tap into new areas of business," Kallenbach said. "The ProSyst software is highly compatible with the Bosch IoT Suite, our platform for the Internet of Things. Above all, it complements our device management component by supporting a large number of different device protocols. This will allow us to achieve an even better market position than before."
BSI will be acquiring, among other assets, the ProSyst device runtime stacks, tools, SDKs and remote device management/provisioning platforms. Bosch also takes on the company's approximately 110 Java/OSGi engineers.
"ProSyst has been the leading provider of OSGi implementations for embedded systems for many years," Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, told ADTmag in an e-mail. "A quick look at their customer reference page shows a pretty amazing list of accounts, including Bosch. And those are just the ones that [the company is] allowed to talk about. There are other, very significant players who embed the ProSyst OSGi technology, but prefer anonymity."
The ProSyst customer list includes, among others, Intel Cisco, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom.
Milinkovich believes that the acquisition signals the intention of Bosch to become a significant player in the IoT, with a particular focus on the industrial applications.
"To me, [the Bosch] acquisition of ProSyst means that Java and OSGi will be an important part of [the company's] strategy," Milinkovich said. "That is great news for both Java and OSGi. In particular, I see this as significantly increasing the likelihood that Java and OSGi will be fundamental technologies in the Industrial Internet."
Posted by John K. Waters on February 19, 2015