We builds dynamic iot-projects

The internet of things (iot) is growing rapidly. More than 35 billion devices already communicate over the internet. That number will continue to grow considerably in the coming years, with an expected doubling in the next two years. Partly thanks to this growth, KPN IoT has quickly become a pillar in KPN's services. The KPN IoT devops team specializes in building infrastructure that supports these iot projects. Product owner Robin Bode knows which technology is involved, whether it concerns connected cocktail machines, bicycle locks or construction cameras.

Robin: “We work on IoT projects all over the world, using the latest techniques.” For example, a project that the team carried out for a car manufacturer. Robin: “Because not every country has the same mobile network policy, we offered this internationally operating customer remote sim provisioning (rsp). The customer can switch providers remotely. You used to buy a SIM card for your phone. When switching to a new provider, you received a new SIM card via the mail. If you want to do that with cars, you would have to call each car back to the dealer who changes the SIM card, but that is of course not duable. Now this customer can equip every car with the same sim, and change it remotely. It is super fun to be able to think along about this from a technical point of view.”

Test solutions in practice
The team members also test their solutions in practice. For example, Robin and his colleagues recently set out to simulate a bicycle theft. ANWB Unigarant guarantees its customers that a stolen bicycle will be returned within 48 hours. If not, the insured will receive a new bicycle. The condition is that there is a tracker on the bike. Robin: “If an insured person indicates via the app that the bicycle has been stolen, the tracker on the bicycle will pass on the location. In this way, investigative services can quickly find the bicycle. With every message from the device, KPN's lora network ensures proper triangulation (location determination with three points, ed.) and performs the calculation. The device therefore does not determine its own location. It saves a lot of power and bandwidth if we let the network do this. The data from the trackers is translated into a map, so that the tracker can see the route of the bicycle.” The investigating officers thus use the lora network, a long range low power network specially developed for iot. If necessary, this is combined with bluetooth. The civil servant then receives the lora location data combined with the bluetooth information. “The network talks to our platform. That can process the data well and adds location solving, so that addresses become visible.”

“Together with colleagues, I tested this tool myself in a simulation to track down a bicycle. It is nice to apply your own solution in practice, even if it is a simulation.” Robin's team's solution has meanwhile ensured that many bicycles have already been returned to their rightful owners. Robin: “The nice thing about IoT projects is that you can see the impact yourself. Partly due to its social purpose, ANWB Unigarant is one of the coolest and most challenging projects I have carried out at KPN.”

Technical insight and creative thinking
The iot projects not only require technical insight from the devops team, but also creativity. Fortunately, the team is given a lot of freedom in looking for the right solution, and can choose which software it wants to use. Robin says: “Solutions are often not immediately obvious. For example, we wanted to improve the roll-out of our infrastructure. We still did this largely by hand or with self-made scripts. We were looking for a way to better automate and document that process. We chose Terraform. This allows us to easily roll out and adjust our entire infrastructure. With this we document directly and we no longer have to do it by hand. That is nice, because it saves us a lot of boring work, so that we can focus on the fun part.”

Lots of growth opportunities and good atmosphere
Robin is now an important link within KPN IoT. “Ten years ago I started at KPN. I started as a support person and then became a system administrator. As a result, I also saw what not to do in IT environments, and that motivated me to dive deeper into IT. I wanted to set up complete environments and do implementations, and I got that opportunity.”

Because Robin used to like tinkering with Linux, he was able to join those projects later. These projects also involved a lot of customization, in the form of self-built applications and scripts. “That's how I ended up at KPN IoT. Here I started building the iot platform, in the role of devops engineer. Soon I was able to make the step to product owner. This is a super-challenging role in which I often solve complex issues with the team often get complex sues and we choose our tools and software ourselves. That responsibility and freedom make the work fun.”

“The opportunities that KPN offers have ensured that I am on a growth trajectory in which I am constantly challenged. But the working atmosphere within KPN also contributes to the fact that I really enjoy it here,” emphasizes Robin. "I feel at home here. To encourage this 'home feeling' among colleagues in the department, I am part of the culture squad, with whom we ensure that it is fun on and off the work floor. This includes the weekly drinks - with karaoke - and fun events. And of course making music with our own iot band.”

Curious what it's like to work on IoT solutions with the most advanced software, just like Robin? Check out our vacancies and discover your options.