An IoT platform is cloud-based software that provides the infrastructure for managing connected devices, ingesting and storing their data, applying analytics or rules to that data, and integrating IoT with other business systems. Where the cellular router provides the connection and the device generates the data, the IoT platform is where that data is collected, processed, and acted upon at scale.

In short: IoT platforms typically provide device management (registering devices, updating firmware, monitoring health), data ingestion (accepting telemetry over MQTT, HTTP, or platform-specific protocols), data storage and analytics (time-series databases, dashboards, alerting), and integration interfaces (REST APIs, webhooks, message queues for connecting IoT data to enterprise systems). Major platforms include AWS IoT Core, Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud IoT, IBM Watson IoT, ThingsBoard (open source and commercial), Cumulocity (Software AG), and ThingWorx (PTC).

For most UK deployments, the platform choice is driven by the customer's broader cloud strategy. Organisations already standardised on AWS will typically use AWS IoT Core. Microsoft-aligned organisations gravitate toward Azure IoT Hub. Sector-specific platforms (for energy, water, agriculture, or fleet) often build on one of these underlying cloud services rather than reinventing the lower layers.

Selection of an IoT platform should consider the scale of the deployment, the protocols and data formats produced by the field devices, the analytics and reporting requirements, the integration requirements with existing business systems, and the long-term cost trajectory (most platforms price per device, per message, or per data volume, and the bill grows with the estate). For small deployments, simpler platforms or even direct MQTT-to-database pipelines are often more cost-effective than enterprise IoT platforms.